Belvedere remain top of the league, despite losing their top of the table clash with Hardington & West Coker.

BELVEDERE slipped to a two wicket home defeat in their top of the table clash with Hardington & West Coker, but still remain top with three matches remaining.

The visitors won an important toss asking Belvedere to bat first on a damp wicket. Belvedere struggled throughout their innings in bowler friendly conditions as White and Knibbs took full advantage, giving nothing away.

The one exception was Sam Mccrea, who dominated the innings with a seemingly effortless 90 (12 fours and a six), but only Callum Neate (16), Nil Chatterjee (12) and Mike Hosey (11) made double figures as Belvedere were dismissed for 153 in the last over.

In response, Belvedere were unable to make significant inroads into the visitors’ batting, despite bowling well.

At 90-2, it seemed as though Hardington would ease to victory until Kevin Crockett took two wickets in his second over and Mccrea returned to the attack to take two further wickets as the visitors slumped to 117-6.

This became 134-8 with only three overs remaining, but Knibbs and Brooks saw their side to victory with just two balls to spare in the 45th over in a match played in an excellent spirit.

All Belvedere bowlers performed well with wickets falling to Crockett (5.4-1-31-2), Mccrea (12-4-33-2), Jack Neville (4-0-15-1), Neate (5-0-19-1), Paul Davis (6-1-21-1) and Chatterjee (12-3-28-1).

Sam Mccrea’s 90, his fourth half century in a row, earned him the Allstars Sports Bar man of the match award.

THE 2nd XI travelled to local rivals Wedmore and came away with a 36-run victory.

Losing the toss, Belvedere were asked to bat first and were reduced to 56-4. Skuse and Jennings put together a 67-run partnership before Skuse fell for 42 in the 38th over, leaving Belvedere 123-5 with seven overs to go in the innings.

Robinson was finally bowled for 48 as Belvedere finished the innings on 156 all out.

Jennings (1-36) and Stone (2-17) reduced Wedmore to 29-3, before Robinson (4-29) spun his way through Wedmore’s middle order leaving them 103-6 after 31 overs.

With young Lucas (1-12) bowling tightly at the other end, Wedmore looked in trouble with Edwards taking three superb catches at short mid-wicket.

Platts was given the ball in the 41st over and after being smashed for a six off the first ball of the over, he got the final wicket leaving Wedmore all out on 120.

The Allstars man of the match went to James Robinson.