ANOTHER poor performance saw Royston stutter to a draw in Peterborough on Saturday. The visitors never looking like getting anywhere near their victory target of 302 as they took only six points compared to the hosts 16. Castor batted first and made a so

ANOTHER poor performance saw Royston stutter to a draw in Peterborough on Saturday.

The visitors never looking like getting anywhere near their victory target of 302 as they took only six points compared to the hosts' 16.

Castor batted first and made a solid start and were quick to punish anything that was off line or length from Royston's bowlers.

There was brief success for Royston when Richard Temple dismissed opener Rodgers and number three Milne in consecutive deliveries with the score on 115, but after that it was much of the same as all Royston's bowlers struggled with the heat and were unable to consistently put the ball in the right place.

The home side posted a formidable 301-6 off their 48 overs, and in reply Royston made a solid start and the score reached 40 off 10 overs before the first wicket fell.

Thereafter followed the usual procession of wickets, with a number of batsmen getting a start but no one going on to make a big score.

At 115-8, with only bonus points to play for, it was left to Craig Holson and Richard Temple to see Royston through to a final score of 172-9 and at least pick up two batting bonus points.

Team manager Temple admitted that his side are struggling to cope with Tucker Gardner League Division Two cricket after last season's relegation:

"It was a pretty disappointing bowling display - we failed with some of the basics of getting the ball in the right place consistently and made it easy for the Castor batsmen to hit the bad ball," he said.

"Having four bowlers going for more than 10 an over isn't really what we are looking for.

"Once they'd got to 150 it was always going to be a big score and a few heads dropped when it became clear that a draw was the best that we could have hoped for.

"The batting showed signs of getting better with a few players getting going, but we really one or two players per game to go on to pass 50.

"I guess a positive for us is that we have players lower down the order who can bat solidly and a few times this season we've made it hard for the opposition to bowl us out.

"Castor should have won the game though - if they had declared 10 overs earlier at 250 I don't think we'd have survived another 10 overs with the bat."

Royston II's best batting performance of the season could not prevent a 78-run home loss against Ashwell.

With Royston losing the toss and with Ashwell electing to bat on a dry home wicket, the hosts were hoping to bowl well and set up their first win of the season.

However, Ashwell who have set or chased big scores all season made Saturday no exception.

Opener M Deal scored a fine century before falling to Leek, with the other opener P. Davis scoring 70 and effectively batted Royston out of the game as Ashwell finished their innings on 257-2.

Royston did produce their highest score of the campaign. batting out the full 40 overs and finishing 169-9 with Tony Clough (29), M Leek (27) and J Bason (23 not out) top scoring for the home team.