WINSCOMBE opened their season with a friendly at Claverham where they came away with a 73-run defeat.

WINSCOMBE opened their season with a friendly at Claverham where they came away with a 73-run defeat.

Claverham, batting first, got off to a good start against indifferent bowling as Horton and Alford put on 120 for the first wicket. The spin bowling partnership of Iain Fraser and Jack Fraser slowed things down, with Jack taking the first wicket and some good fielding from Alan Hunt and Liam Cureton claiming a couple of run-outs.

Davis held the rest of the Claverham innings together and with his help they reached 217-8. Further wickets were taken by Liam Cureton (2-27), Matt Lunn (1-12) and Alan Hunt (1-15).

In reply, Winscombe started off steadily but slowly as runs were hard to come by. Jack Fraser showed promise with a patient 20 and Alan Hunt upped the tempo with 21, but they never looked likely to threaten the target and with Matt Lunn scoring 57, Winscombe finished on 144-6.