Division Seven Eversholt II 139-10 (48.1) Flamstead 141-2 (40.4) FLAMSTEAD returned to winning ways on Saturday as they beat Eversholt II by eight wickets at Friendless Lane. With only five regular first XI players available, Flamstead

Division Seven

Eversholt II 139-10 (48.1) Flamstead 141-2 (40.4)

FLAMSTEAD returned to winning ways on Saturday as they beat Eversholt II by eight wickets at Friendless Lane.

With only five regular first XI players available, Flamstead were under pressure and skipper Andy Taylor continued his bad form with the toss, losing for the seventh successive time.

Flamstead were asked to bowl first on a good looking batting track. Eversholt's openers started slowly against accurate bowling from Dave 'Twiggy' Rogers and chairman Tim Wilkinson.

With Wilkinson bowling five maidens in his first six overs Eversholt had reached 14 in the 13th over before Rogers bowled McDuell. Wilkinson then struck in the next over thanks to a good catch by Mark Ridley at first slip.

Eversholt crashed to 28-3 as Ridley took his second catch at slip off the bowling of Wilkinson.

Eversholt's number three, Kendall, then dug in and, after Wilkinson bowled skipper MacMillan, he put on 39 with Garratt. Flamstead off spinner Mark Ridley got the breakthrough when he bowled Kendall for an excellent 50 and then two wickets in two balls reduced the visitors to 109-7. Garratt (17) and M. Fuller (15) put on 20 together before Flamstead wrapped up the innings all out for 139. Wilkinson picked up 4-49 off 22 overs with 10 maidens and Ridley took 3-36 off seven overs, with Rogers claiming 3-15 off 11.1 superb overs with six maidens. J. Heatley bowled eight overs and conceded just 23 runs as Eversholt were suffocated.

In reply, Flamstead started slowly. David Bradbury (16) was caught off the Eversholt skipper MacMillan before skipper Taylor and Mark Ridley then put on a match winning partnership of 94 in 22 overs. Taylor scored an excellent 50 off 119 balls and went on to reach 68 not out while Ridley fired 46 off 59 balls as Flamstead reached 141-2 to win with 11 overs to spare.

Skipper Taylor was delighted with the way his side performed to secure their fourth win from nine matches this summer. He said: "Considering we had a weakened team the lads put on an excellent all round performance. With some top order batsmen hitting some form at last and both our opening bowlers back to their best we will be raring to go next week. It was great to see 'Twiggy' Rogers and Tim Wilkinson putting huge pressure on the batsmen which was backed up by four good slip catches."

Flamstead go away to unbeaten Division Seven leaders Tewin on Saturday.