THRIPLOW IIIs recorded their first win of the season at the third time of asking with a 23-run victory over Linton IIIs at Granta Park on Saturday.

Having been put into bat, Thriplow were expecting to find that the rain would have taken any pace out of the pitch, but once the sodden outfield had worked its worst on the ball, runs started to flow more easily. The opening partnership pushed the score on to 67 before Collins was out for 28, with Goodacre perishing a few overs later for 33.

The runs continued to flow from Huntingdon, supported first by Hart and then by Cliffe; with Huntingdon eventually falling in the final overs to a running outfield catch for a fine innings of 33.

The rare luxury for Thriplow IIIs of plenty of wickets in hand at the end of the innings enabled Dixon (24 not out) the freedom to play his shots, which he did to great effect with 30 runs in the last four overs, despite the dismissal of Jansen for a duck and Osborne suffering the frustration of being run out from a direct hit before he had even faced a ball.

Although the final score of 162-7 was a solid total in the conditions, it still left Linton in the hunt.

As Linton came out to bat the rain had abated and conditions were much more tolerable for both sides. After a steady start with only nine runs coming off the first five overs from Dixon and Bright – openers Faulds and Auger suddenly cut loose launching Bright to the boundary three times in quick succession.

Young Bright kept his head and gained his revenge the next over by trapping Auger lbw. Linton continued to build steadily through Faulds and Bolton who pushed on to 58 in the 19th over before both fell to spectacular diving catches from Cliffe in successive overs. The return of Dixon into the attack was immediately rewarded with a wicket thanks to a well-judged catch by Huntingdon while Dixon eventually finished with miserly figures of 1-16 off his 10 overs.

A run-out by Collins, followed by a second lbw for Bright (2-44), left Linton at 96-6 with only 10 overs left.

After Newman had twice dispatched Jansen to the boundary in the 35th over the required runs were down to only 33 off 32 balls and it looked at is if the game was swinging back to Linton. But the next ball Jansen (2-35) demolished Newman’s stumps. Hyman (3-29) dismissed Herbert when the batsman edged into the grateful gloves of Osborne for 33 before the final two wickets followed soon after leaving Linton all out for 139.