Lympsham defeated Street to strengthen second position in the league table.

LYMPSHAM hosted Street looking to strengthen their position of second in the league table.

Batting first, Lympsham got off to a great start, with openers Dave Luff and Rich Ford rolling back the years to take the score past 50 in the 15th over.

Luff continued to be the aggressor and soon passed 50 with the score on 86 for no loss. The pair continued to play smartly, before Ford was removed just for a solid 45, leaving the home side perfectly set with the score on 148-1 after 32 overs.

This brought Jack Luff to the crease, and the father/son combination looked to increase the tempo. However, Luff senior was caught shortly after for a fine 87.

Tom Gooding joined his captain at the crease and together the pair instantly began to execute their skills. Some brilliant running and some fantastic hitting from Luff ensured that the run rate kept on rising, with Luff reaching his 50 off just 29 balls.

Gooding provided the perfect support role, ensuring Lympsham finished on a competitive 279-3. Luff was eventually caught off the last ball of the innings for a quick fire 80 off 40 balls, with Gooding finished on 37 not out off 32 balls.

After tea, Lympsham picked up an early wicket by Liam Morris and was well backed up at the other end by Matt Mitchell, and after 15 overs the score read 38-1.

Some good resilience from the street top order meant that wickets became hard to find, but the introduction of Jules Froud completely changed the game.

Some fantastic fielding from Lympsham as a whole meant that the pressure soon brought its rewards, and the visitors slumped to 70-5 in the 29th over. Another couple of wickets for Froud, as well as two late wickets for young Tom Ferns, ensured Street were bowled out for 103.

Lympsham Concrete man of the match Jules Froud finished with figures of 5-29 off 11.3 overs.

This opened up the gap between Lympsham and their rivals, with Lympsham looking to continue their good form with the short trip to Uphill Castle on Saturday.

THE 2nd XI came very close to pulling off an unlikely victory against table-topping Watchet 2nd XI.

Travelling with just nine players, Lympsham were put into bat and found themselves under immediate pressure with the loss of both openers in the first four overs.

They recovered with Rich Drew (30) and Rod Simpson (29) putting on a composed partnership of 60 before wickets fell again and they were all out for 124 in just 39 overs.

After tea, Lympsham also took early wickets, from Dan Berry and skipper Stuart Bruce reducing their hosts to 20-3 at one stage. The home side also stabilised though and pushed towards the total until a second flurry of wickets brought Watchet to nine down and needing just one run to win.

In a nail-biting finish, the winning run was scored, leaving Lympsham searching for a win from their last three games to secure their place in the division next year.

Man of the match sponsored by the Indian Massala in Bleadon, was skipper Stuart Bruce for bowling figures of 5-37.