Swindon enjoyed an emphatic victory at Apperley on Saturday, gaining revenge for their opening day defeat at the County Ground.

The match was in doubt due to the midweek rain, but went ahead on a minefield of a pitch.

The toss was crucial and went the way of Swindon skipper Will Nichols, who duly asked a slightly-weakened Apperley side to bat.

With the ball deviating alarmingly off a length, the Gloucester side began carefully, but after safely seeing off the first five overs, the dangerous Macpherson was caught behind by Beasant off the bowling of Stinchcombe with the score on 13.

The paceman was causing all sorts of problems on the difficult pitch, and while Leeke was showing stout resistance at one end, Stinchcombe began to make serious inroads into the Apperley batting.

He removed the next four batsman in five overs, three of them clean bowled, as the home side were reduced to 43-5 in the 17th over.

Not wanting to miss out on the chance of improving his average, captain Nichols replaced Hussein at the other end, and almost immediately removed Leeke, caught by Giri for 12, which effectively ended any Apperley resistance.

The tail folded, with Nichols cleaning bowling the next three batsman, and having a hand in the run out of No 11 Stacey, as Apperley, who at one stage had been 43-3, were all out for a lowly 50.

Stinchcombe ended with figures of 5-19 from 12 overs, while Nichols returned exceptional figures of 4-1 from 4.2 overs, the one being a wide. Despite losing Beasant for one in the opening over, caught at short leg, Swindon had no difficulty in passing the Apperley target, as Compton and Giri decided to launch anything slightly off line.

Compton ended unbeaten on 36 from 28 balls, and Giri on his debut made 15, as Swindon cruised to victory in the eighth over, to win by nine wickets.

Swindon's 2nd XI had an easy victory against their respective counterparts from Apperley at the County Ground. Swindon posted a huge total of 284-8, with Danny Baker scoring 78 and John Baden 70 off 46 balls.

Apperley never really attempted to chase their target, and ended 100 runs short on 182-8, with Roger Willoughby taking four wickets.