ASHWELL slipped to the foot of Senior Division Three with a home defeat to Eversden on Saturday.

ASHWELL slipped to the foot of Senior Division Three with a home defeat to Eversden on Saturday.

The visitors recovered from a perilous 85-5 to eventually post 250-8 which proved too much for Ashwell.

Gary Simmons (2-52) and Rufus Talks (2-18) made the early inroads into Eversden’s batting as Mark Doughty and Martyn Deal each successfully pouched two catches in the outfield. Eversden’s recovery was led by Hartop (81) and Ward, who was left stranded on 98* when the allocated 45 overs were completed.

Mark Doughty took a day off from his usual wicketkeeping duties, had a bowl, and finished with commendable figures of 2-25 from seven tidy overs.

Despite Ashwell’s early wickets, the team failed to land the killer blow and Eversden piled up the runs in the closing overs – leaving Ashwell a daunting target of 251.

Ashwell skipper Martin Talks made a quick-fire 15, then a stand of 102 between Doughty (58) and Tom Wallace (33) gave the side a strong platform from which to attack. However, from 118-1, Ashwell slipped to 138-6, and even with middle-order contributions from Martyn Deal (16) and Henry Dann (16), Ashwell ran out of time and closed at 206-9 to lose by 44 runs.