Weston got back to winning ways with a 123-run victory at home to Cheltenham.

WESTON returned to form and delivered a 123-run win over Cheltenham at Devonshire Road.

After winning the toss, Weston elected to bat and reached 25 before Andy Fear (3) was bowled. Sam Trego fell for 20 soon after, but Shabil Ahmed and Edd Brown punished anything loose.

Van Heerden (2-68) was pulled to the fence by Brown several times before he fell lbw to Didcote. Rob Turner joined Ahmed and the pair continued to build the innings.

At drinks, Weston were 110-3 and the restart signalled the beginning of Weston’s push. Ahmed brought up his 50 shortly before Turner reached the same milestone.

Ahmed eventually mistimed to midwicket for an excellent 76, sharing 100 for the fourth wicket. Turner was stumped shortly after for 57 in the 38th over.

At 205-5, Weston began to kick on and John Williams on his return, along with Chris Davidson, went after the bowlers. In eight overs, the pair put on 76 with both clearing the ropes in the process.

Davidson fell for 34 from 23 balls and Williams 45 from 33. Carl Fletcher and Gemaal Hussain helped Weston finish their innings just one short of 300.

Hussain got Weston off to the perfect start as he had dangerman van Heerden superbly caught at third man by Andy Fear. The Somerset man then removed Gloucestershire’s Richard Coughtie caught behind and Kelly for a hard hit 31.

Cheltenham soon found themselves 67-6 as Hussain picked up a fourth and Ahmed took a sharp one-handed catch off his own bowling before trapping visiting captain Simmons lbw. Hussain finished with excellent figures of 10-3-30-4.

Ash Allen picked up two wickets to give Weston a chance of two additional bonus points, but with youngster Waters (27 not out) proving tough to remove and some late hitting from Thomas (17) and Didcote (31), Cheltenham were able to push on to 176.

Trego picked up the last two wickets to ensure Weston picked up 20 points and maintain their position at the top of the league and unbeaten home record.

This was an excellent batting response from the whole line up. Despite some excellent performances from Hussain, Turner and Williams, the Intouch CRM man of the match was Ahmed.

On Saturday, Weston travel to basement side Warminster, needing another win to keep their promotion hopes on track.