STEEPLE Morden's hopes of promotion look a distant dream after they went down by 40 runs against Godolphin. Morden made a perfect start with Jack Tidey taking two wickets in his first over and another in this third while Richard King also struck early lea

STEEPLE Morden's hopes of promotion look a distant dream after they went down by 40 runs against Godolphin.

Morden made a perfect start with Jack Tidey taking two wickets in his first over and another in this third while Richard King also struck early leaving the home team in trouble at 13-4.

Opener Small was still around, however, and he was joined by Shafiq with the pair leading something of a recovery before Paul Jarman dismissed Small for 31.

Aslam hit a quick 36 before Tidey (9-0-24-4) and King (9-3-24-4) returned to dismiss Godolphin for 163, with Shafiq top scoring on 68no, but Morden were left regretting dropped catches which in the end proved to be the difference.

Batting was becoming more difficult as the game went on and Morden crashed to 13-3 against some very good bowling, but Paul Jarman stood firm and defended his wicket well.

At the end of the half way point Morden were 29-3 and despite Mark Newland hitting 20 the signs did not look good.

Duncan Warner joined Jarman and runs started to flow with the new batsman hitting two high sixes before he perished for 49.

Warner followed for 25 including a farcical eight off just one ball when Warner originally ran three, ran another run due to an overthrow and then looked on in disbelief as a second overthrow ran away to the boundary.

Morden finished 40 short on 123-6, however they did seal eight bonus points.