AFTER last week s battling display against Bluntisham, Royston suffered a heavy defeat on Saturday at Weston Colville. Batting first, Royston limped to 67-5 after 22 overs, with only skipper Adam Newman making any impression with the bat, making 43. Simo

AFTER last week's battling display against Bluntisham, Royston suffered a heavy defeat on Saturday at Weston Colville.

Batting first, Royston limped to 67-5 after 22 overs, with only skipper Adam Newman making any impression with the bat, making 43.

Simon Seabrook (28 not out) nursed the tail of Royston's batting through to 41 overs, with successive partnerships of 40 with Craig Holson (15) and Richard Temple (14), although a final score of 140 all out always looked 40 runs short on a ground with two short straight boundaries.

And so it proved as the opposition openers put on a first wicket partnership of 83 before the breakthrough was finally made with Westley being caught and bowled for 28.

With Royston's limited bowling being severely exposed, and an increasingly wet ball becoming difficult to control, the opposition batsmen wasted no time in ensuring that they reached the victory target with 25 overs and nine wickets to spare.

Team manager Richard Temple was despondent after the loss. "After getting some confidence back last week, it was a really disappointing display," he said.

"We've still not yet had anyone make a 50 and have only picked up two out of a possible 12 batting bonus points, with our top team score being 140.

"In most games we should have had at least two out of our first six batsmen making scores of 40, which should set us up nicely for later in the innings.

"The bowling was always going to be a struggle with four out of our five main bowlers from the last two seasons all having left or retired but we've managed admirably nonetheless.

"Defending 140, though, was always looking like being a difficult proposition."

Royston continue their run of away games on Saturday with a trip to NCI.

Royston II's first game at their new Therfield home ended in frustration as their match against Romsey Town was abandoned.

Royston were put in to bat, and on a slow May wicket, some poor communication when running between the wickets and some good line bowling proved the undoing of the top four and early in the innings saw them slump to 26-4.

A partnership of 30 runs between John Bason and Tony Clough steadied the ship before Clough was given out LBW for 26 leaving Royston on 56-5.

Bason continued his good innings and with Ian Watson's experienced hand took the team through to the final over.

Bason finished on 46 not out with Watson 23 who was out in the final over as Royston finished on 128-6 in 40 overs.

Only four overs were bowled in the second innings before the teams left the field.

Even with the slow pitch and overhead conditions 128 may have been around 15 runs to few.

However this early in the season it was pleasing to see some solid individual performances and some youngsters keen to play cricket.

In Royston CC's first competitive cricket match at Therfield, the under-13 side took on Saffron Walden in the first round of this year's CYCA Cup, on Thursday.

A confident Saffron Walden team put the home side into bat on winning the toss, obviously preferring to chase down a total for victory.

At 5-5 after four overs it was beginning to look like a good decision, but Adam Wright and Toby Fynn managed to stay out in the middle and some poorer second string bowling from the visitors allowed Royston to finish on 50 (all out) in the last over.

With nothing to play for other than some pride, the Royston bowlers set about their work and despite losing a couple of early wickets Walden looked to have the match comfortably under control.

Then crucial wickets taken by Adam Wright, Paul Leary and Toby Fynn began to leave the visitors a little exposed and Callum Bacon, in a great spell of bowling, took four wickets in addition to claiming a run out from a direct throw.

The visitors fell apart and Wright took the last wicket with the total on 45.

The next evening the under-11s visited local rivals Reed in the first round of the cup.

Royston won the toss and asked Reed to bat. The Reed opening pair of Heslam and Hooper batting well quickly began to build a good total.

Under Cup rules Heslam was forced to retire at 40 and eventually Hooper went stumped off the bowling of Ryan Timms for 22.

Reed finished on 102-1 off their 20 overs. Philip Hall was the pick of the Royston bowlers with a very economical 4-2-4-0 return.

Despite losing an early wicket, Royston began their reply in confident style with Bonham Harper and Jamie Seabrook bringing up the 50 after just eight overs.

Seabrook perished to a catch at mid-wicket having made a quick 22 including four fours.

Harper was joined by Paul Leary and helped by some indifferent Reed bowling and some good running between the wickets the pair saw the visitors across the winning line with an over to spare, with Harper on 24 and Leary on 18.