Weston 2nd XI won a remarkable match at Gloucester City Winget by three wickets.

WESTON seconds further strengthened their position at the top of WEPL Premier Two 2nd XI, with a remarkable three wicket win at Gloucester City Winget.

After winning the toss, Weston had little hesitation in asking Gloucester to bat first – a decision that looked vindicated as the home team struggled to 46-4 at the 20 over mark in the face of some accurate bowling from Tom Court (7-0-21-1), Jalal Ahmed (9-0-26-2), Paul Stringer (5-1-16-0), Ashley Allen (9-3-8-2) and Stu Roberts (7-2-22-1).

The struggle continued, not helped by a slow outfield, and it took some lusty hitting from the lower order, particularly David Collinson (29) to get the home side to the respectability of 135-9 from their 45 overs, with a further wicket falling to Matt Kearsey (8-0-37-1).

In reply, Weston got off to one of the worst starts in the club’s history as the first five batsmen were all dismissed for ducks in the face of some fine bowling from Adam Picton (8-3-28-4) and Dustin Burt (6-0-9-2), the innings stumbling to 3-5 with all the runs coming from the extras column.

When John Davidson (15) departed soon after the scoreboard fell to 22-6 and the game looked as good as over. However, once the dangerous Picton had finished his spell, batting became marginally easier with Kearsey and Ahmed trying to get Weston back into the game.

Kearsey passed 50 and with Ahmed (20) also finding the boundary, Weston had all of a sudden found themselves favourites. Ahmed fell with just three more runs required and it was left to stand-in skipper Kearsey to hit the winning runs, taking his own score to 76 not out.

The seconds know that victories in their final two games, at home against Ilminster and Thornbury respectively, will secure the league title and an immediate return to WEPL Premier One 2nd XI.

InTouchCRM man of the match was Matt Kearsey.