WILTSHIRE made a fine start on the first day of their Minor Counties Championship game against Shropshire at Corsham yesterday.

They won the toss and elected to bat against the team who currently lie second in the Western Divisional table and are unbeaten this season.

Wiltshire rattled up the runs with James Hibberd of Calmore Sports scoring a superb century and he was 118 not out at the 90 over mark when skipper Russell Rowe called a halt to the innings.

Good support for Hibberd came from Kevin Blackburn (60) and Spencer's Baqar Rizvi (56). They shared in a third-wicket partnership of 107.

All of the other Wiltshire players hit double figures to take the total to 347-7 and a maximum four batting points.

Shropshire took three bowling points while ex-England one-day international Neil Smith and Tim Mason both took two wickets each.

In reply Shropshire were 10-1 in the third over when bad light halted play.

In total 17 and a half overs were lost to the weather, nine around lunch owing to rain and then bad light intervening after tea, before the rain returned. And the weather looked like playing a part going into today's second day.