Uphill Castle ended the season on a high note, beating Bishops Lydeard and finishing in third position in the league.

UPHILL Castle finished their season on a high, consolidating third place by beating Bishops Lydeard by 18 runs in a tense game, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Asked to bat on a wicket which gave assistance to the bowlers, Uphill made a reasonable score of 193-7. Several batsmen made contributions, but the bulk of the runs came from Luke Bliss (68 not out) and Ty Watson (41).

Excellent opening spells of bowling from George Cox and Lewis Degales saw Lydeard under the cosh at 36-2 off 18 overs. Lydeard rallied when former Zimbabwian test player Henry Olonga and Raymond-Clark fought back with a partnership of 115, which put Lydeard firm favourites to win the game.

Raymond Clark fell lbw to Markus Bail (10-0-40-3) and Uphill managed to keep Olonga off strike, which let Uphill in.

Bail bowled Tom Stone and quickly followed this up by trapping Olonga lbw. Pressure was mounting on Lydeard as they needed 30 off the last six overs.

Simon Cattermole (9.1-2-36-5) in his second spell, finished the game with a magnificent spell of accurate bowling. From 25 balls, he took 5-8, giving Uphill victory by 18 runs.

Autosmart man of the match was shared between Luke Bliss and Simon Cattermole.

UPHILL CASTLE

K Kumar c Taylor b Thomas 8

A Belcher b Thomas 16

T Watson b Walters 41

D Millard b Olonga 5

L Bliss not out 68

S Cattermole st Raymond-Clarke b B Stone 20

M Bail c B Stone b Walters 5

G Cox b T Stone 18

G Williams not out 4

Extras 8

Total (7 wkts) 193

BISHOPS LYDEARD

J Burke b Cox 3

N Taylor c Cattermole b Degales 16

H Olonga lbw Bail 54

A Raymond-Clark lbw Bail 50

T Stone b Bail 0

B Stone b Cattermole 5

M Sutton b Cattermole 0

M Thomas b Cattermole 13

D Ord lbw Cattermole 0

G Walters b Cattermole 0

W Parkman not out 8

Extras 26

Total 175

Bowling: G Cox 10-3-18-1; L Degales 10-4-17-1; S Cattermole 9.1-3-36-5; M Surendran 4-0-24-0; M Bail 10-2-40-3; L Bliss 4-0-25-0.

THE seconds completed their season with an 88-run victory at Street. After winning the toss Uphill elected to bat first and got off to a slow start.

Mark Hodder (11), James Holt (11) got Uphill into a position of 50-4, before Andy Llewellyn (97), continued his good form and was ably supported by Dave Bickell (27), Ray Dibben (10) and Nick Kuht (9 not out), taking the score up to 201-7 at the end of their innings.

The Uphill bowlers responded well and there were early wickets for Pete Jobling (2-23), Andy Leech (2-18), James Holt (2-16) and Matt Kearsey (4-28), resulting in Street being bowled out for 113.

The bowlers were greatly helped by some great catches by Hodder, Bickell, Dibben, Leech and Sam Matthews, to record another maximum point victory and a successful season.

Autosmart man of the match went to the whole team for a complete all-round performance.