ON what is now becoming a fortress, Rockhampton made it seven wins out of seven at The Boundary Field.

After winning the toss, the visitors made a brave decision to let Rockhampton bat first.

Skipper Matt Tyler and Jerry White opened up with a 50 partnership.

Tyler (34) and White (18) fell in quick succession leaving Rowan Cartlidge and Will Tyler the task of re-building the innings.

Cartlidge brought up his second 50 of the season off 68 balls and ended up with 85 from 82 balls, including 15 boundaries, before being cleaned up by Irfan Sahar (2-68) with the score on 198.

Tyler passed his 50 before producing an onslaught on the Bassett attack.

The last few overs produced a flurry of wickets, including Tyler (74) and Michael Barton (24).

Bassett got off to the worst possible start as Sam Burdock (1) was caught at short leg by White off Will Cartlidge with the score just on two.

Jack Spence dismissed Jaggy Chalal for 28 via a superb catch from Matt Tyler, who stuck his right hand out and clung onto the ball after Guy Brothwood at cover could only tip into the air.

Harvey Cummins went first ball to Spence (2-12), caught behind by the impressive Cartlidge.

Chris Pearce (1-20) got one through Sam Lawro’s defence to see him go lbw for 23 and then James Hancox claimed the wicket of captain Mark Vincent (17).

Hancox (3-22) was in a particularly ruthless mood as he claimed a further two wickets to see the visitors crumble to 115-7.

Neil Twine played some nice shots in a stubborn 32 before being caught by White off Cartlidge (2-43).

A comical run-out followed, conducted by Chris Pearce, and then the refusal to bat of Sahar signalled the end of game.

Rockhampton are now just one point off the leaders, Biddestone going into Saturday’s trip to Trowbridge.

Stroud League Premier Division Minchinhampton (167-8) beat Rockhampton 3rds (166-8) by two wickets

Rockhampton suffered a narrow and very disappointing defeat on their trip to Minchinhampton on Saturday.

The Rams were asked to bat first and openers Paul Williams (22) and Derek Newcombe (17) were fortunate to take the score to 36 before the first wicket fell.

This sparked a collapse as the visitors quickly found themselves at 46-4 before a middle-order recovery led by Greg Morgan (33), Nick Gulwell (31) and Rich Mackinnon (20) eventually saw Rockhampton up to an acceptable total of 166-8 from their 40 overs.

This looked to be more than enough as an accurate opening burst from Neil Higginson (3-48) soon had Minchinhampton in trouble at 20-4.

However, some cavalier batting and costly dropped catches saw the game turned on its head as the hosts initially built a recovery and then pushed on to the required winning total with eight wickets down and one over to spare.

Skipper Tom Cullimore was his usual consistent self with 3-32 from his 12 overs and the other two wickets were picked up by Christian Irwin and Matt Wright.