STEEPLE Morden once again crashed to defeat in a game they should have won comfortably in their visit to Elsworth on Saturday.

The home side elected to bat first and lost a wicket on the first ball of the match as keeper Tim Tidey took a catch off the bowling of Martin Osborne.

The wicket was rather bowler-friendly and Elsworth were reduced to 36-5 as they struggled to get to grips with the Morden attack.

Osborne (10-2-19-3), Mark Hale (6-1-11-1), Graham Jarman (8-3-10-1) and Connor Beeching (6-2-11-1) all kept the pressure on the batsmen throughout but a few poor overs let the home side off the hook and a last wicket stand of 33 took them to 112-9.

Morden knew it would be hard to chase down the target on a wicket that still favoured the bowlers.

And, so it proved, as Morden slumped to 71 all-out and a 41-run defeat.

Duncan Warner top-scored for his side with 25 while skipper Darren Jarman made 18 but it wasn’t enough to get the win.