Weston made a winning start to the season with a narrow 12-run victory over Keynsham.

WESTON got their league season off to a promising start with victory at home to Keynsham.

Losing the toss, Weston were asked to bat in difficult conditions and John Davidson and Fear put on 18 for the first wicket before Davidson was caught. Fear followed soon after, but debutant James King’s quick-fire 33 put the pressure back on the bowlers.

Ahmed and King fell in quick succession and Keynsham’s spinners bowled tightly as Neave and Chris Davidson dug in until drinks. Neave was stumped off the impressive Sam Wheller (10-3-22-3) leaving Weston 101-5.

Davidson continued to grind out and he was well supported by Sean Stringer and the pair put on 53. Davidson mistimed to fall for a stubborn 29, but with 154 on the board and seven overs to go, Weston looked to be heading towards 200.

However, Stringer remained stranded as wickets tumbled around him and Keynsham restricted Weston to 175-9, with Stringer finishing 34 not out. Tasman-Jones ended with 3-37.

Keynsham’s innings got off to a flier as Gloucestershire’s Cameron Herring pulled Willoughby for six. With the openers struggling, Chris Davidson came on for a one over spell to allow them to change ends and picked up the wicket of Herring.

Willoughby (10-3-26-2) then struck twice removing Tasman-Jones and Jarman, while there were further wickets for Fear (7-1-24-1) and Davidson (7-0-23-3), reducing Keynsham to 63-5.

Russ Wakefield played patiently for an excellent 46 to keep Keynsham’s hopes alive, but he eventually fell to Allen caught behind. Allen struck twice more to end with 3-16 from his 10 overs and Shabel Ahmed picked up the ninth wicket.

Needing 65 to win, the last pair got through some early scares and as they became more settled, the runs began flowing and the chances dried up.

Soon it was down to just 16 off the last two overs. Davidson returned and was able to restrict them to four runs from the penultimate over and Stringer picked up the final wicket with four balls remaining to get Weston over the line by 12 runs.

Forte Financial man of the match was shared between Chris Davidson for his all-round contribution and Ash Allen for his excellent bowling spell.