THE Gecko Cricket CDCA Div One became even more wide open this week as league leaders Oakridge suffered their second consecutive defeat.

Fielding a seriously depleted team at Bibury, Oakridge did well to post 177 all out off their allotted overs. The early loss of the in-form Martin Smith was a big blow but a fine partnership between Mark Robbins (91) and skipper Ed Bryant (51) built a strong position.

Once they departed the innings collapsed in the face of good bowling from Dave Leith (2-32) and Mark Hayes (2-63).

After tea the shortage of Oakridge fielders allowed Bibury to score runs at will and Charlie Robinson (90) and W Marioscott (36) were the main beneficiaries. Martin Smith (2-23) did his best but Bibury could not be contained and reached the target at 179-4 off just 25.4 overs.

South Cerney got back to winning ways with a comprehensive home defeat of ambitious Cricklade.

The hosts were inserted and given a good start by Jay Russell (48). A bit of a stutter followed until Dan Mobley (43) came in and put bat to ball to help his side to a competitive 164 all out. For Cricklade Tom Davies (2-26) bowled well but was upstaged by younger brother Greg Davies (4-21) who polished off the tail.

With a good batting line-up at their disposal Cricklade would have been confident of knocking off these runs. They started briskly with Tom Davies (21) to the fore but that was as good as it got as excellent bowling from Chris Wearing (3-18), Garrick Chivers (3-27) and Craig O’Keefe (3-37) saw Cricklade shot out for only 103 in the 28th over.

At Barnsley Park hosts Barnsley Beeches were involved in a very tight tussle with Sherston Magna.

Batting first the hosts struggled against some very tight bowling from Harry Stevens (4-25) and Ben Dickenson (3-37). Wickets went down at regular intervals and it was not until former skipper Ed Latter (31*) entered the fray that the innings gained any momentum. A final score of 147 all out would have been below expectations.

In reply visitors Sherston Magna also found batting difficult. A good partnership between Ben Dickenson (35) and James Kutchera (24) put them in a strong position but the introduction of Andrew Coulter (3-22) and Ed Latter (3-24) changed the course of the match as they wiped out the rest of the batting line-up to leave Barnsley Beeches the winners by 14 runs.

A tight tussle did not describe the events at Tetbury 2nd XI where visitors Great Rissington 2nd XI overwhelmed the hosts.

Tetbury got off to a promising start as they took several early wickets but the arrival of Bryan Brain (76) changed things as he and Toby Crammen (36) propelled the visitors to a very good 212 all out. For Tetbury Paul Jones (3-33) and Luke Freeman (3-48) bowled well.

The Tetbury tea clearly had a wondrous effect on the Great Rissington opening bowlers as Phil Cross (6 for 4 off six overs) posted the bowling figures of a lifetime. He was well backed up at the other end where Dave Griffen (3-16) also bowled well.

The final insult came in the form of a run-out leaving Tetbury bowled out for a paltry 22 in 12 overs and Great Rissington in great heart during the long trek back home.

Poulton 2nd XI were comprehensively outplayed by hosts Longborough & Sezincote.

The visitors elected to bat but never really got going with Calum Higginson (26) and extras (34) the main contributors to their below-par 144 all out.

For Longborough Josh Newbold (3-19) and Gary Luker (3-19) bowled particularly well.

After the break Calum Higginson (2-39) bowled a decent opening spell but the home batsmen had little difficulty in knocking off the runs as Henry Leonard (35*), C Campbell (32*) and Luke McDonah (27) all scored freely to finish the game in the 26th over.