THE visitors won the toss and decided to bat first at Stowe Lane in this Glocs/Wilts Division One game.

COLWALL v SWINDON

Majeed and Josh Hornyold bowled steadily at the start of the innings, but Sydney-Smith (53) and Beasant (20) gave Swindon a steady start, adding 52 for the first wicket in 16 overs.

Baden then joined Sydney-Smith, and Swindon gradually got themselves into a strong position. However, Dave Sutton was building up a good rhythm and cleverly deceived Sydney-Smith with an arm ball for 53, leaving Swindon 91-2 after 26 overs.

Despite Sutton removing Nichols, courtesy of a brilliant Riley catch, Swindon continued to prosper and were very well placed at 143-3 after 36 overs.

But the introduction of Stuart Bailey into the attack in tandem with Sutton completely turned the game around. Supported by excellent catches from Tom Chappell and Andy Sutton, Swindon collapsed, losing six wickets for 14 runs, including Baden for 38.

Their innings finished on 157-9 after 50 overs, with Sutton back to his best, returning figures of 5-31 in 15 overs, and Bailey weighing in with a sizeable contribution of 3-20.

In reply, opener Tom Wolfendale and David Powell both took the attack to Swindon to give Colwall a firm base. Wolfendale would certainly have been disappointed to have been trapped lbw by a Willoughby yorker for 16. Meanwhile Powell played a loose shot to drag a ball from Stoddard onto the stumps for 29. This left Colwall at 65-2 in the fifteenth over and brought together Majeed and 15-year old Tom Chappell on his league debut.

The pair imposed themselves on the Swindon attack and had no problem in adding an unbeaten 93 for the third wicket to push Colwall home.

Chappell made a patient 41, which included some delightfully fluent shots towards the end of the innings. Meanwhile Majeed was in fine form, compiling an unbeaten 55, including some excellent drives against the Swindon spinners.

Colwall reached 158-2 in 36.1 overs to comfortably win by eight wickets and edge themselves back into the race for promotion.

Colwall's next match tomorrow (Saturday) away at Goatacre however will be a tricky prospect.