Defeat for Lympsham ends their faint promotion hopes.

LYMPSHAM travelled to Pucklechurch in South Gloucestershire and came away with a 15-run defeat.

Skipper Jamie Howson won the toss and invited the opposition to bat, and opening bowlers Brendon Summers and Dan Berry had early success dismissing the hosts’ openers.

The bowling attack then struggled against some dogged batting and the hosts progressed steadily to a good total. The visitors did take a further three wickets, with debutant Stuart Gould taking his first wicket for the club, but Pucklechurch were able to post a competitive target of 193-5 off of their allotted 45 overs.

In reply, Lympsham got off to a slow start, and when the openers tried to up the scoring rate it led to Dave Luff being run out, soon followed by Howson.

Joint Lympsham Concrete man of the match Rich Ford was now joined by debutant Gould, and they began to repair the damage, but when Gould was dismissed, only joint Lympsham Concrete man of the match Tom Gooding made any significant further contribution as Lympsham stumbled to 178 all out.

This leaves Lympsham in a mid-table position and now out of the hunt for a promotion place.

? Lympsham 2nd XI hosted fellow strugglers Pucklechurch and skipper Rod Simpson lost the toss and was asked to bat.

The hosts made the worst possible start with Rich Drew and Rod Simpson soon back in the pavilion. Debutant Courtney Kerkin scored a useful 16, but Windows Merchant man of the match Jason Parsons (91) was progressing well, assisted by youngsters Max Gregory and Adam Micklewright,.

Unfortunately the tail did not wag and a disappointing total of 154 all out was posted.

Pucklechurch started with a lively reply before Liam Morris (1-42) bowled opener Barnes and Simon Pilgrim (3-31) got amongst the wickets. A further couple of wickets by Kerkin (1-30) and Ben Laing (1-42) gave the hosts some hope, but the remaining batsmen played well and Pucklechurch won by four wickets.