THE fixture between Shipston and Broadway fell victim to the localised thunderstorms with the contest interestingly poised.

Rain the previous evening had left the wicket very green and home skipper Greg Burrows had no hesitation in inviting the visitors to bat first.

Opening bowler Phil Hatt delighted in making the ball seam and bounce alarmingly from just short of a length giving openers Andy Corby and Julian Morris a torrid time.

Robert Bruce claimed the first wicket in the sixth over having Corby caught at cover by Tim Morris for just four.

Julian Morris struggled to 17 by the 17th over before his innings was ended by Jamie Powell, thanks to a neat catch by Burrows at slip.

One run later and Shipston were 68-3 Chris Close holding onto the catch for Gary Leeds after Gary Betteridge had shown signs of a return to form with 33.

Howard Bentham (17) and Dave Murphy (38) staged a mid-order recovery and had advanced the score to 140 before the heavens opened and curtailed play for the day.

Moreton v Shipston

A WICKET made lively by the previous day's rain resulted in an excellent contest between these oldest of rivals.

Shipston recovered from a poor start against an excellent spell of bowling from Ashley Hurrell thanks in the main to a third wicket partnership of 99 by Neil Harper (53) and Gary Betteridge (48), Roger Wickson (16) and John Greenhill (13) made double figure contributions helping the visitors to an all out total of 176.

Hurrell was the pick of the bowlers with 15 overs 5-50 and Jeff Chapman effectively cleaned up the tail claiming 5-24 from 5.3 overs.

A 53 run opening stand by D Henshaw (22) and J Hurrell (23) in just 12 overs should have set Moreton on their way for a comfortable win, but the home side lost their way against Morris, Murphy and Betteridge who all bowled good line and length and to well set fields making runs hard to come by.

Hardiman (36) and Williams (14) were pulling things back round, but a superb piece of fielding by Simon Wickson ran out the latter and the momentum to the run chase was lost.

With 40 runs required from just three overs some desperate hitting was attempted by M Gillett (19), M Bandiera (10) and D Gore (8), but the task was beyond them with the last wicket falling on the last ball and Moreton still six runs adrift. Morris 3-25, Betteridge 3-42, Murphy 2-37.