Swindon CC (174) lost to Rockhampton (175-4) by six wickets

ROCKHAMPTON secured the highest finish in their history after beating Swindon.

After losing the toss and being asked to field first in the battle for second place, it couldn't have started much worse for the Rams as the first three balls of the match from Will Cartlidge all went for four.

Luckily for Rockhampton this only fired Cartlidge up, while at the other end Chris Perry was back to his miserly best and between them they were able to reduce the hosts to 30-3.

A combination of irresponsible batting and some very disciplined bowling soon made this 86-8 from 30 overs as captain Jack Spence gambled and used his three front line bowlers' 30 overs immediately.

Cartlidge (10-2-38-4), whose wickets included a superb one-handed catch from his brother Rowan, Chris Perry (10-5-21-1) and Guy Brothwood (10-3-26-3) were all superb.

Swindon began to recover through Andrew Staff (17) and the impressive Matthew Kidd, who looked more like a number four then ten as he went past fifty with great support from number 11 David Miles, who finished on 14 not out.

Sam Nichols (2-34) dismissed Kidd (55) in the final over, resulting in Swindon posting 174.

Rockhampton's innings got off to a terrible start with Will Tyler (10), Rob Belbin (13), Guy Brothwood (14) and Rowan Cartlidge (8) all dismissed to leave the visitors on a precarious 59-4.

A short break for rain came just at the right time, allowing not out batsmen Simon Hore and Matt Tyler a small reprieve and resulting in Swindon's attack losing some momentum.

As he has done so often this season, Matt Tyler was simply faultless and his confidence rubbed off on Hore at the other end as he too began to find the boundary and begin to look like his old self.

The pair took the score past 100 and then 150 with Tyler passing fifty in the process.

Neither looked in any trouble and strolled the victory target with 41 balls to spare, posting a 116-run partnership in the process.

Matt Tyler finished on 70 not out from 99 balls that included 12 fours and Hore ended up on 46 not out from 81 balls with nine fours.

Although Rockhampton cannot now win the title, they will be looking to end a fantastic season in style on Saturday when they host Chippenham at The Boundary Field, 12.30pm.