March out of step as five-wicket Turner gets them on the run

THRIPLOW stole a march on March seconds on Saturday in an entertaining CCA Senior League Division 1 fixture with a straightforward eight-wicket victory.

Winning the toss Thriplow captain Chris Neild sent the young March side into bat.

The even but slightly slow wicket looked an alien surface to most of them, and despite a below average bowling performance, no one was able to stay for long.

Nathan Sugden (2-25) struggled to keep the ball away from the leg side, but produced a jaffa to bowl Miller, and then Cunningham hit a full toss straight to Martin Craze at mid wicket.

Chris Viner (1-19) dropped a simple catch in the first over, but made up by taking two diving beauties - one off Andy Morris (1-13) and from his own bowling.

A brilliant diving stop and throw by first team debutant Nick Cliffe ran out Kinson to set up a superb performance from Dickon Turner.

Thriplow's silver fox cleaned up the tail and collected his third five wicket haul in as many games, finishing with 5-30 off 10.5 overs to leave March all out for a disappointing 94.

Martin Craze and Paul Staley launched the reply. However, Craze was uncharacteristically caught at mid wicket for nine. Godric Smith joined Staley and they pushed things along in their differing ways.

Staley had smashed a six and seven fours on his way to a brisk 43, before he was bowled, offering no shot, having got his hands in a muddle attempting to change his decision to play a reverse sweep.

Smith (23 not out) and Neild (9 not out) saw Thriplow home in more conventional style, a trademark slog sweep from the latter leaving Thriplow the victors by eight wickets with 22 overs to spare.