Bank House Glos CCL Div Four

Ruardean Hill 135-8 Cirencester 2nd XI 136-5

WINNING the toss proved crucial on a moist Ruardean Hill pitch which had taken some heavy downpours and, calling correctly, Cirencester captain Tony Wood inserted the home side.

The decision paid dividends with Ciren winning by five wickets to put pressure on county league division four leaders Witcombe with two games remaining.

Joel Frost opened the bowling for Cirencester and took the wickets of Tony Williamson and Robbie Moore in the third and fifth overs.

Frost was extracting life from the pitch, while Ned Langlands-Pearse proved a model of accuracy at the other end.

After 12 overs Hugh Alder was brought into the attack and his brisk medium pace soon had the batsmen hopping around. He was duly rewarded with two wickets which could have been more but for a couple of catches going down.

Tony Wood came into the attack mid innings in a bid to dry up the runs with his slow left arm bowling and this proved successful, with Ben Langridge's off spin coming down from the other end.

Wood finished with 3-17 as Ruardean Hill closed on 135-8.

Despite some stubborn resistance from Bramwell Coleman (0) and George Thrussell (12) in the early overs against a ball leaping off a length throat-high, wickets did fall quickly and both were out along with Alder (4) inside the first ten overs.

Andy Cooper then produced another important solid innings, hitting some glorious on and off drives mixed with some delightful pull shots to provide the visitors with some breathing space. He was out for a well-played 37.

The middle order needed to fire and it did thanks to patient and well-constructed knocks from Ben Langridge (40*) and Tom Rutter (26*).

They came together at 75-5 and stayed there until the end of play as Cirencester achieved the winning total of 136-5.