LECHLADE’S Paul Godding and Asanka Vithanage held their nerves and mounted a rear guard batting performance to set up their team’s third successive win of the season to keep them top of the Glos/Wilts Division.

The Manor Ground side had been invited to bat by the visitors on what looked like a tricky batting track and looked to be in serious trouble with the loss of their overseas opener Bradley Dial for a second ball duck.

Lechlade continued to struggle as Freddie Martin (4) and Willy Nichols (5) also fell in the opening six overs with only 33 on the board.

Home captain Joe Breet together with Arran Dickinson then managed to hold back the Biddestone pace onslaught and managed to see off their main strike bowler Nazeem Khan before the latter departed for 14 having edged behind to wicketkeeper Laurence Roots.

Khan (2-16) bowled his 10 over spell straight off and conceded only two runs from his final six overs.

Lechlade then lost Breet for 51 to leave them in considerable trouble at 82-5.

Godding and Vithanage then started the home fight back sharing in a 69 sixth-wicket partnership in which the latter played the aggressor.

On Vithanage’s departure for 41, Godding (43) took the lead and with the Lechlade tail, Tris Hawkes (17) and Luke Sellers not out 11 they added another 81 runs to the Lechlade total to close 222 all out.

Sellers then struck in the first over of the Biddestone reply as he bowled Jamie Mitchell without scoring but Martin Sawyer and Neil Bredenkamp then asserted themselves on the Lechlade attack.

Nichols then bowled Sawyer for 18 in the 18th over and then Dwayne Perry along with Bredenkamp (39) and then Andy Flynn (30) continued to frustrate the Lechlade attack taking the score to 142 before he was eventually dismissed for 33. All three were dismissed by Hawkes, who finished with match figures of 4-29.

With Perry’s demise Lechlade then wrapped up the last six wickets for 40 runs in 10 overs with some exceptional fielding resulting in two run outs.

Lechlade captain Breet said: “I think today’s result shows the enormous depth of quality we have in the side this year.

“We were without our top wicket taker Michael Craigs but in comes Tris (Hawkes) who gets four very important wickets.

“The depth of our batting line up is second to none in this division and that was clear with Paul and Sanks batting at six and seven getting us a respectable score after our bad start.”