Sweetfuels CDCA Div Two

Northleach Town 157-6; Fairford II 154-6

NORTHLEACH continued their recent fine form in CDCA Division Two with a home victory by four wickets against Fairford seconds.

Asked to bat first, Fairford's innings was built around an excellent 55 from Rich Cowley.

The visiting batsmen found it tough against accurate bowling on a slow wicket with variable bounce, several perishing to shots across the line of balls which kept low.

However, James Alborough (23*) and Alex Paton (16*) combined to very good effect at the end of the innings to push the final score up to 154-6.

The wickets taken were shared around four of the five home bowlers used. The only bowler to go wicketless was captain Tony Gardner, who nevertheless conceded only 23 runs from his 10 overs.

Fairford needed early wickets to have a realistic chance of winning the game but were unable to take a difficult chance off the first ball faced by Darren Hall. He made the visitors pay with a well-made 53 as the home side appeared to be cruising towards victory with Hall and fellow opener Gardner (44) going past 90 in good time.

However, young spinner Harvey New came on to claim both their wickets in an excellent spell of 3-35 in ten overs.

Colin Denness also took three wickets to give Fairford an outside chance of an unlikely win before Chris Hanks came in to settle matters with several big hits. He raced to 21* as Northleach reached 157-6 in the 35th over.