LECHLADE sit precariously close to the bottom two in Premier One after Clevedon inflicted their fourth defeat of the summer on Saturday.

The hosts, who are enjoying life at the other end of the table, completed a convincing 79-run victory at Dial Hill.

Clevedon won the toss and elected to bat and set about their task early on with a 73-run stand for the loss of the first wicket, Max Curtis caught lbw from the bowling of Jack Taylor.

However, just two balls later, momentum looked to swing in the visitors' favour when Taylor claimed the scalp of Marc Lezar for a duck.

That brought Jake Lintott to the crease, who single-handedly took the game out of Lechlade’s hand as he ripped through the bowling attack to score 124 off just 95 balls.

He put on a partnership of 55 with Masoor Khan (58) before the opener was caught off the bowling of Benny Ellis and despite the next four batsman out of the pavilion mustering just 53 runs between them, with Will Carpenter going for a duck, Lechlade were unable to dislodge Lintott as the hosts set a target of 284 for the loss of seven wickets from their 50 overs.

The run chase got off to a shaky start for Freddie Martin’s side as they lost Ryan Higgins for just six runs, trapped lbw by Matthew Carpenter, before Joe Breet was following him to the changing rooms just two balls later with no runs to his name.

A third-wicket stand of 91 settled the ship for the visitors before Lintott made his impact on the game with the ball in hand as he ripped through the stumps of Tom Young (38).

Taylor didn’t hang around much longer as his fine innings was also brought to an end on 64 as Lintott struck again, caught by Adeel Khan.

Lechlade were unable to find any momentum after that as Bradley Dial (29) was caught by Lezar before Lintott continued his stranglehold on the game, trapping both Ellis and Martin lbw.

Christopher Harwood gave the final wave of the tail as he struck 21 off 28 balls but was unsupported as Lechlade were all out for 204 with 25 balls left.

The result leaves Martin’s side three points above second-from-bottom Corsham, with the chance to close the gap on Frocester immediately above them when they meet this weekend.