Rockhampton CC 194/7 beat Burbage & Easton Royal CC 190/6 by 3 Wkts

ROCKHAMPTON got back to winning ways with a hard fought victory at Burbage on Saturday mainly thanks to a superb all round display from Chris Willoughby.

Having won the toss and elected to bowl first, Rockhampton started tightly with Willoughby in particular impressing. Wakefield joined the attack and was luckless in a spell that must have included twenty play and misses from the opening batsmen.

The breakthrough eventually came in the fifteenth over when Willoughby did find the edge safely through to Spence's gloves.

This brought former New Zealand international, Luke Woodcock to the crease and Rockhampton immediately looked to starve him of the strike, a plan which worked really well as the other opener used up 80 balls for his 21 before being cleaned up by the impressive Dave McCabe (8-2-21-1).

With the hosts' innings moving along at such a slow pace, it was always going to be a hectic final 20 overs as they limped past 30 overs on just 70/2.

It was the third wicket, a well deserved one for Sam Nichols (10-0-33-1) that brought about a change in the momentum of the innings as the number five immediately looked to play his shots.

Although still being starved of the strike, Woodcock was ticking along at the other end and it was nicely setup for a big finish at 150/4. Thankfully Hancox (1/49) was able to remove the dangerous Mukherjee for 46 and when Wakefield managed to dismiss Woodcock for 58.

Some late hitting saw them get to 190 with Rockhampton taking six wickets including a smart stumping by Spence off the bowling of Wakefield (2/28).

The Rams' response didn't get off to the best of starts as Wakefield (4), Cullimore (16) and Will Tyler (9) all fell relatively early on to leave Rockhampton on 54/3.

Rob Belbin again impressed as he joined Matt Tyler out in the middle. The pair put on 40 before Matt was harshly judged LBW for 26. Belbin smashed a couple of big sixes on his way to 36 before being caught and bowled by Green, who then followed up with the wicket of Perry for 2 and at 116/6 it looked like Burbage's game.

Spence and Willoughby put on a nice partnership that starting to bring the visitors back into the game but Spence fell for 15 and Rockhampton were 139/7.

McCabe batted and ran superbly to compliment Willoughby's strokeplay at the other end. With just two to win and Willoughby on 44, he smashed an enormous straight six to win the game and fittingly end on 50 Not Out.

With just four games remaining, Rockhampton and Chippenham remain neck and neck at the top of the table with the pair still to play each other. Next up for Rockhampton is a trip to Warminster on Saturday.