AN EXPLOSIVE innings of 76 from Thornbury opening batsman Dan Davis helped his side to a tense victory over Gloucester City Winget (GCW) at the Ship Field.

Davis’ knock was hugely important in setting up a competitive total of 209 for the hosts, before he took control with the ball.

Davis struck four times to bundle GCW out for 201 and give Thornbury the narrowest of victories.

GCW won the toss and elected to field on day conducive to the swinging ball.

However, the visitors did not get the early breakthrough they desired with Davis thumping a number of early boundaries to ease the pressure.

Despite the positive start Thornbury began to lose wickets at regular intervals with Josh Slade (13), Vishai Mamgai (3) and Luke Davis (9) perishing in quick succession.

When Davis was finally dismissed for 76 and James Tuinnicliffe (4) followed soon after, Thornbury were wobbling on 115-5.

The lower order needed to come to the party and they delivered, with solid contributions of 23 from Sam Summerfield, 32 from Tom Bradley and 19 from Marcus Wormwell to drag Thornbury to a reasonable score.

Like Thornbury did in the first innings GCW got off to a good start with the bat, with the opening pair putting on 42 for the first wicket.

With the GCW looking comfortable Luke Davis turned to his go to man Dan Davis and he didn’t disappoint.

Davis dismissed both openers to swing the momentum back in favour of the hosts and firmly hammered home their advantage.

Davis and Luke Franklin then hammered home the advantage taking two more wickets each to leave GCW reeling on 83-6.

If Thonrbury thought the visitors were going to give in then they were sorely mistaken, Rizwan Maroofkhail (48) and Ben Lambert (30) put on 64 to give GCW before Craig Collison (12) and Richard Hoult (13 not out) continued the fight.

However, Joshua Morris claimed three late wickets to clean up the GCW tail, giving Thornbury victory by just eight runs.