BY 11.30am on Saturday, the 1st XI game at Woodmancote had been called off and the team was left disappointed at the opportunity missed to move up into a possible fourth place in the Gloucester and Wiltshire Division 2.

With the final game at home to Cinderford the opportunity will again present itself and the team under Navid Ahmad will be looking to finish on a high.

With the first team game off, it leaves an opportunity to keep fellow cricketers up with the performance of the 2nd XI who entertained Woodmancote 2nds at Marlborough.

With the wicket covered overnight, play was always going to take place but the toss would have a possible bearing on the result.

The second team has had a marvellous season under skipper Vik Patel and has never been outside the top three positions having headed the table for several weeks.

At the moment the team is in third place and needs to win its last games well to keep the pressure on top Clubs Gloucester City and Bredon.

Skipper for the day Steve Jones lost the toss and the home team was asked to bat.

Jones gave the team a good start with 30 before he became one of four catches for the wicket-keeper.

He has been a prolific scorer and this score would rank as a failure. Fellow opener Jiggy Patel had an early rush of blood and was out for just 6.

Ajay Kumar's return to the seconds after a run in the firsts was short lived when he was caught out for 19.

He had looked capable of a high score and may regret taking such an aggressive stance against the bowler.

The score at this point was 65 for 3 from 18 overs. This was a reasonable start as batting was proving difficult.

The reliable Nick Dobson, Dave Slater and Mark Cooper were all out after adding only 11 runs and the team was in problems at 79 for 6 and over 20 overs still to be bowled.

Stuart Cock went to the wicket and was joined by Chris Patterson. By this stage, batting was getting easier but these two steered the team to a very impressive 207 off the 45 overs.

Cock scored his maiden 50 for the club with seven fours in an innings of 56 not out from 86 balls faced.

At the other end, Chris Patterson also scored his maiden 50 for the Club with an innings of 58 not out from just 51 balls faced.

He hit four fours and one huge six into the hockey pitch area. Their stand of 128 was a joy for the large crowd, which included most of the first team.

Best of the bowlers for the visitors was Chris Read with 3 for 49, J Wilgoss with 2 for 45 and A Gyde with 1 for 50.

From the start, Woodmancote found the home team bowling difficult to score from and with veteran Peter Mathias taking 3 for 23 from 13 overs to add to the 6 he took at Woodmancote he was a real thorn in the side.

Fellow opener Stuart Cock bowled an aggressive spell without any luck but was rewarded with a wicket in the last overs to finish with 1 for 23 from 10 overs. With only Chris Read with 44 making a decent score a victory for the visitors was never a possibility. When he was out to a splendid caught and bowled by Vannie Williams one sensed the game was over.

With Williams picking up another wicket and Ajay Kumar chipping in with 2 the final score for the visitors was 141 for 8. Craig Simmons was unlucky in his short spell but conceded only 16 runs.

It is now all to play for in the last game away at Cinderford.