Uphill Castle won their second game in a row as they defeated second-placed North Petherton.

UPHILL Castle travelled to second-placed North Petherton and came away with an excellent victory.

Put into bat, Castle struggled early on and were reduced to 86-6, with fine contributions from Seb Winn (29) and Luke Bliss (26).

This brought George Cox to the crease after a four-week break, he took off as if he was never away, dispatching the ball to all parts of the ground with a good mixture of big boundary hitting and clever singles.

Chris Disney played the anchor role and fought hard for his 19 not out before Cox was finally caught for a brilliant 53 as Uphill ended on 179 off 41.4 overs..

The North Petherton innings got off to a bad start, losing openers Hucker and former Somerset star Ian Blackwell caught at cover by skipper Dave Millard off Cox.

Bliss (6-0-14-0) was introduced into the attack for the inconsistent Markus Bail, but Cox had time to remove the attacking Pienaar for 11, Millard with another catch.

Cox was replaced by Mitch Fox and bowled his best spell of the season with sharp controlled deliveries.

Fourteen-year-old Liam Winter played an innings well above his age and made it hard for the Uphill batsmen, but the introduction of Kieron Chapman (6-0-26-1) brought the wicket of Winter for a well fought 57.

The reintroduction of Cox and Bliss brought more wickets for Uphill, Cox picking up another two. Bail’s reintroduction saw him take three wickets as he finished with figures of (8-0-43-4).

Uphill had the momentum in the final stages of the game and the win was brilliantly wrapped up by Fox when he bowled Briffet to win the game as North Petherton were all out for 162.

Fox’s figures of 6.4-2-13-1 was the best of the season on a personal level, but the special mention of the day was to Cox. He controlled the game with a brilliant 53 and figures of 9-4-9-4.

Uphill have now won two on the bounce and look to make it three when they host Bishops Lydeard on Saturday.

THE 2nd XI had a busy, but successful weekend, when hosting Curry Rivel and travelling to Glastonbury for a re-arranged league game and recording two victories.

On Saturday, Uphill batted first and after a rain delay, Mark Hodder (16) and Sam Frost (34), put on 57 for the first wicket. After this, wickets fell regularly with only George Chapman (16) and Paddy Holyday (21) getting any runs and the innings closed on 148 all out.

When Curry Rivel batted, only opener D Higginson (58) got any runs and they were bowled out for 87. Pick of the bowlers was Pete Jobling (12-7-13-5) and he was well backed up by George Chapman (2-30) and Ed Bliss (2-16).

A welcome victory and 32 points.

The following day, the seconds travelled to Glastonbury and batted first. Hodder (25) and Frost (52) put on 91 for the first wicket. Like the previous day, wickets fell and Uphill found themselves 120-5, but Chapman (30 not out) and a quickfire 45 from Andy Llewellyn and Holyday with 10 off five balls, Uphill posted 207-6.

Again the opposition only had one batsman who got going, with all the Uphill bowlers performing well and had Glastonbury bowled out for 116.

There were wickets for Pete Jobling (1-31), Andy Leech (3-33), George Chapman (3-32) and young Brad Patch (2-1).

A victory margin of 91 runs and 35 points were recorded.