Banwell & Churchill clinched promotion after a hard-fought victory at Hardington & West Coker.

BANWELL & Churchill travelled to Hardington & West Coker for their latest Division 5 match and came away with a hard-fought 33-run victory.

Brett Diver lost the toss and were put into bat. Lloyd and Biggs struggled early on and were soon reduced to 38-3. Lloyd battled hard for his 26 and when he and Bryant were out, Banwell slipped to 57-5.

Diver hit three boundaries in a quick 16, but when he and Adams were out, Banwell had slipped to 78-7. This brought vice-captain Brooks and Bush to the crease and in an excellent partnership, took the league leaders to 143-8, with Bush scoring 29 and Brooks 22.

Brooks and Bush opened the bowling and Hardington got off to a good start, before Brooks took the first two wickets to reduce the hosts to 49-2 off 13 overs.

Skipper Diver turned to spin and Biggs (3-21) and Diver (4-25) bowled superbly. From 66-2, Hardington were reduced to 101-9 with top fielding all round from Banwell, including one outstanding catch by Jones.

Pearson took the last wicket as Hardington were all out for 110. The league leaders are now guaranteed promotion and one more win should also take the title.

IN their latest Somerset League match, the 2nd XI recorded an important win in their bid for promotion against local rivals Lympsham.

They were invited to bat first by their visitors and were bowled out in the last of their allotted 45 overs for a below par 119.

Rick Hutchinson with 27 and Kevin Burgess with 24 were the only batsmen to make significant contributions.

However, for the second week running, the second string were up to the task in the field as they managed to bowl their opponents out for 75 to win by 44 runs.

Kevin Burgess completed a good game by taking 2-12 runs, Dave Eckett took 3-22 and Ric Brafield 3-16 in 10 overs. The bowlers were backed up by some fine fielding, especially two run-outs executed by Neil Duncan and youth player Nick Spinks.

The win saw 30 points collected to keep them at the top of their division with three matches remaining.