Gloucestershire County League Division Two

Tetbury (173 all out) lost to Oldlands (174 for 5) by five wickets

OLDLANDS produced an impressive all-round team performance to complete their third successive win with a comfortable victory at Tetbury on Saturday.

Winning the toss and asking the home side to bat first, the dry, crumbling wicket actually played much better than was anticipated and a little wayward bowling early on allowed the home side to get away to a promising start reaching 39 for 1 after ten overs.

However, as in previous weeks the introduction of Brad Thomas (1 for 33 from nine overs) and Steve Pennington (2 for 21 from nine overs) into the attack slowed momentum considerably and the building of pressure saw wickets begin to fall on a regular basis, including a superb direct hit run from Walton from 50 yards with just one stump to aim at.

Dave Brookes (1 for 32 from eight) with his best bowling spell of the season so far and the returning Pete Waite (3 for 35 from nine) and Dave Walton (0 for 38 from nine) then bowled with great discipline to strangle the life out of the last 15 overs and with a wicket from Tom Paterson and a fine piece of work from Waite to complete a run out off the final ball, the visitors achieved a deserved maximum of bowling points. Pick of the home batsman was James Westhead (84).

In reply, the Oldland's innings made an untroubled start before Thomas uncharacteristically chipped back a loose shot to be caught and bowled, before an excellent century stand between the solid Nick Grove (53) and impressive Brookes (48) took the game away from the home side.

When Brookes disappointingly missed a full toss to be bowled, Brad Stansfield with a cultured, yet powerful 30 from 24 balls then took his side to the brink of victory before both him and Grove fell to catches off the bowling of Hoddy with the game virtually won.

Bobby Woolams' sumptuous drive over extra cover that would have provided the extra batting point somehow inexplicably pulled up agonisingly inches inside the boundary, although a well deserved haul of 20 points sent the visitors home happy.