WILTSHIRE battled to an impressive nine wicket win in the Minor Counties Championship against second-placed Shropshire at Corsham Cricket club early this week.

Wiltshire won the toss and decided to bat. They scored an impressive 347 for 7 in their first 90 overs.

Kevin Blackburn who scored 60 and Baqar Rizvi who made 53 put on 104 for the third wicket. Blackburn was trapped lbw from the bowling of ex-England one day international player Neil Smith. Rizvi was caught by Martin after a clever ball from Mason

Then top run scorer James Hibberd took to the crease. He scored a heroic 118 not out. He had a good partnership with Mike Coles as they scored 55. Coles left the field on a respectable 23 after being caught by Foster from another Mason ball. He then held another long partnership of 55 with Richard Bedbrook. Bedbrook was finely bowled for ten by Smith. Richard Foley scored 23 and was bowled by O'Connor and Neil Shardlow strolled to the end of the innings on 26 unbeaten with Hibberd. The pick of the Shropshire bowlers was Mason on 2-29 and Smith 2-32.

This was a tough score to chase for Shropshire who did not fare as well with the bat. They lost opener Foster for a duck. Shropshire then struggled to a score of just 10 runs when rain ended the first day.

They didn't start the second day very well either. Jason Searle captured three wickets to help keep the Shropshire score down to 137 all out. Foley bowled out Ralph for 22 and finished off Shropshire by forcing Shimmons to strike a ball to Shadlow to catch and end the innings. That left Shropshire 210 runs behind and on the follow on, they had a better second innings but could only manage 223 all out.

Captain Searle did all the damage again. He bowled out Martin for 18. and off his bowling Shardlow caught Mason for 27 and Whitney for 51.

Searle also took the wicket of Catterall for 33, he was caught by Chandler. Shardlow made a few more catches. He caught opening batsman Foster his second duck, that was off the bowling of Bedbrook. He also caught Ralph for five off the bowling of Hibberd to make an excellent record of six catches for the match.

Nash took two wickets, trapping Smith lbw for seven and bowling Tilt for three. Coles gave Wiltshire an easy target to aim for as he bowled out Shimmons for one.

This left Wiltshire needing just 14 runs to win the match on the last day.

They did lose the wicket of Blackburn for 12. He was bowled by Shimmons. But Wiltshire only had 13 balls before they reached their total and won the match by nine wickets.

Manager Brian White was extremely pleased with the team's win. He said: "I think we played very well and for some reason they did not. That's what sometimes happens in cricket."

White does not think that Wiltshire can win the league but is happy that they have closed the gap on Berkshire from 17 points to a single point. The leaders Devon are still 18 points ahead. He said: "It is almost a mathematical impossibility so I don't think we can win."