ROYSTON suffered a humbling defeat at the hands of title contenders St Ives on Saturday. After losing opener Ken Graham in the fourth over, Royston managed to remain patient in the face of some concentrated pressure from the St Ives opening bowling attack

ROYSTON suffered a humbling defeat at the hands of title contenders St Ives on Saturday.

After losing opener Ken Graham in the fourth over, Royston managed to remain patient in the face of some concentrated pressure from the St Ives opening bowling attack.

And with a succession of maidens Stechell (8-3-11-0) and Sriravindrarajah (8-3-18-1) restricted Royston to a mere 1.8 per over in the first 20.

Matt Graham was the next to go after he inside-edged onto his pad and was caught behind.

He was quickly followed by Holson and Gillham, who both went for ducks.

Meanwhile, while others were falling Paul Miller patiently blocked out the disciplined bowling, and when he picked out Sriravindrarajah at cover he had faced 75 deliveries but reached only 23, to become Royston's top scorer.

From here Royston never really looked like capitalising on the visitors' bowling, and a further five batsmen failed to make double figures as Leach (12-5-24-6) took six wickets.

As a result, Royston posted a less than competitive total of just 83.

Royston's performance in the field was also sloppy, and some of the bowling left a lot to be desired, as 28 extras were chalked up, to reduce the visiting batsmen's target even further.

In the end, St Ives did not have to break sweat as they reached the total without loss from only 17 overs to once again leave Royston in search of that elusive first win.