Cricklade rolled into Down Hatherley on another warm Saturday in this glorious cricketing summer, intent on making up for defeat against the same opposition early in the season and looking to cement their place at the top of GCCL Division 7.

A promising (and unusual) start was made when skipper Danny Lloyd won the toss and asked the home team to bat on a wicket still recovering from a midweek downpour, and Cricklade picked up their usual early wicket courtesy of Adam Robbins. Any thoughts of a quick win, however, were dispelled by a century stand between Shelley and Thompson and Down Hatherley were well placed at 108 for 1 to post a total in excess of 200.

Up stepped Super Sammy Pinchin, casting aside his keeping gloves for this week to bowl some military medium inswingers and obliging with excellent figures of 3-32 (helped by excellent catches from Paginton and Lloyd) to provide some support to Angelo Rigali’s off-spin, getting some assistance from the wicket to produce season’s best figures of 9-2-16-4. After their great start, Down Hatherley had been restricted to 166 for 9 off their allotted 45 overs.

Despite some demons in the wicket, the target never looked enough once Cricklade’s reply got off to the usual good start, with Danny Lloyd (19) and Paul Dewsbury (18) providing stout support to Paul Paginton’s magnificent 101 breaking the back of the run chase, leaving VC Rhys Mills to administer the last rights with Cricklade sealing the win for the loss of 4 wickets with 6 overs to spare.

So, Cricklade increase their lead at the top of Division 7 to 28 points and await the return fixture with the boys from the Forest, Ruardean Hill. Fireworks are guaranteed!

As bowling performances don’t count, the BigVan World man of the match was Paul Paginton once more for his excellent, match-winning hundred. Well played Paul!