Uphill Castle crumble at North Perrott.

UPHILL Castle travelled to second in the league North Perrott hoping to build on their recent wins.

Uphill won the toss and elected to bowl in a reduced overs game. Openers George Cox (9-3-23-1) and Markus Bail (9-1-29-0) bowled with great control and made it hard for the Perrot batsmen.

Mitch Fox was introduced into the attack and got the breakthrough immediately having the dangerous Whorlow well caught by Chris Disney. Fox followed this up by bowling the other opener.

Chapman was introduced after Fox and bowled a consistent line and got his reward with two wickets. The re-introduction of Cox brought another wicket and Tommy Llewellyn fielded brilliantly for a run out.

There were further wickets for Dave Millard and Fox (8-2-36-4) as Perrott finished on 191-9.

In reply, Uphill lost early wickets and were reduced to 12-4 inside five overs. Luke Bliss and Cox repaired the damage and put on more than 60 before Cox was forced off the field with cramp.

Cox’s replacement Disney only lasted one ball as another collapse saw more wickets fall. Bliss (13) was adjudged lbw and when Cox (43) came back in, he only lasted another two balls.

Only Bail (15 not out) of the remaining batsmen reached double figures as Uphill were bowled out for 93.

Uphill now need two wins from the remaining fixtures to have a chance of avoiding relegation due to the league restructure.

UPHILL 3rd XI were put into bat on a drying strip and were quickly reduced to 55-5 before Martin Palmer and Shaun Tanner put together a 44-run partnership.

The young tail wagged with outstanding shot playing by Jacob Matthews and Tom Greed, who put on 33 for the eighth wicket as Uphill finished on 170-9.

Ilminster started at a fast pace before Newman (4-47) and Greed (1-26) tore through first five batsmen. It was left to Matthews (3-33) and Matthew Ogbourne (1-13) to mop up the rest of Ilminster’s batsmen to bowl them out for 123.

Mentions to Rob Fletcher and Paul Kuht for two outstanding catches.