STONE recorded a third Gloucestershire County League division two win of the season as they beat Oldlands by six wickets at home.

Stone won the toss and put Oldlands into bat where Nick Grove and Brad Thomas began the innings with gusto. Grove smashed five boundaries and a six in his knock of 70 before he was trapped lbw vy Pete Lavis.

Thomas, meanwhile, anchored himself to the crease for thirty before Greg Allen took a catch off Tom Boroughs to dismiss him.

Nevertheless, it had set a good platform for Oldlands to plough on further – but they did not respond.

Stone took control with James Thomas and Lavis at the sharp end of the collapse. Oldlands lost their next eight wickets for just 37 runs and finished on 171 all out after 45 overs.

Thomas ended his nine overs with 5-30 while Lavis took 4-28 also from nine overs.

And if Oldlands had thought they had seen the last of Lavis, they were mistaken as the bowler turned to the bat to open the Stone innings and smash 76, which included seven boundaries and a six, before he was caught by Dave Walton off Jack Higgs.

He had shared a stout partnership with number three Peter Booth, after fellow opener alan Sherman had gone for four, which sealed the win.

Wicketkeeper Booth struck 51 before he was caught by Matthew Gardner off the bowlong of Steve Pennington and, with Oldlands giving Stone 39 extras, the finishing line was in sight.

And, after losing one more wicket when Dave Jones was bowled by Gardner for two, Greg Allen, with three not out, finished the job as Stone scored 175-4 in 42.2 overs.

But Stone seconds had a tough afternoon as they travelled to Frampton-on-Severn to take on the home side’s second XI in the Stroud and District League Division One.

Frampton won the toss and chose to bat – and Stone were given early encouragement as Charles Ball ripped out the stumps of both openers and Kuldeep Singh dis the same for number three George Driver-Dickenson with just a handful of runs on the board.

But Frampton recovered as the rest of the side knuckled down and gave Stone the run-around.

Number four Calum Nicholson hit 46 before he was caught by Gavin Mills off Christopher Barnes.

And Stone’s sOllie Wolstenholme had a tremendous afternoon as he took the other four wickets to go down.

Unfortunately for Wolstenholme and Stone, these wickets came after long intervals of Frampton batting as their skipper Martin Clements hit 37 before he was out, Harry Compton scored 14 and Iain Murray cracked 55 before Wolstenholme ripped out their stumps.

And knocks of 22 by Keiron Birch, who was also bowled by the Stone marksman, and an unbeaten thirty from Kieron Lawrence took Frampton to 244-8 in their innings.

In reply, Chris Barnes played a captain’s innings as he opened with 56, but the rest of the side failed to add any significant runs.

Singh hit 13 before he was out and number five James Hodges added ten to the total. But they were the only batsmen to reach double figures – with 16 runs coming via extras – as Stone crashed to 105 all out.