THRIPLOW II recorded a convincing 163-run win against old rivals Steeple Morden on Saturday thanks largely to Kevin Scully’s magnificent century.

Having won the toss, skipper Dabnor elected to bat on a strip that looked like it would live up to it’s historically uneven bounce. Fears were well-founded and the wicket performed extremely variably, but the batsmen played superbly to more than neutralise the potentially deleterious affects of the strip.

Although Alex Scully (9) lost his wicket early to a tight run-out decision, the aggressive Scully senior relished the opportunity to thrash the inept bowling attack to all quarters.

In the company of Mark Richer (37), Scully took the score to 130 before the second wicket fell in the 25th over. If Steeple Morden believed they had made a decisive breakthrough, they soon realised that matters were about to get worse.

Freddie Preston, playing in his first match of the season, started cautiously but solidly, acquainted himself with the conditions and set about attempting to out-score the aggressive Scully in a partnership that saw the total soar to 264 in the 37th.

In the last few overs, Kevin Scully departed for an awesome 130 but Preston (62) continued in uninhibited style to allow Thriplow to post an impressive 288-5.

Morden, to their credit, started with apparent intent to chase the target but it was a forlorn hope. Openers P and D Jarmen fell early on, and although Phil Saich (43) showed some resolve, the Thriplow total was far out of reach.

Tight bowling made scoring a challenge and fine fielding yielded the desired results with Dan Tinkler showed outstanding form in the field with five catches.

Once Saich was despatched, the Morden lower order folded with Dickon Turner mopping up the tail with three wickets in nine balls to leave Thriplow victorious.