LECHLADE hit the ground running on the opening weekend of the Premier One season as they recorded a win against Bedminster on Saturday afternoon.

Freddie Martin’s side got the new campaign off to the perfect start with a seven-wicket win over the visitors.

Lechlade won the toss and elected to field, something which immediately looked to be a good decision as Saiprasad Sudarshan Kamuni was bowled out for a duck after facing just three balls.

The home side continued to make good progress as Garreth Elphick, Miles Hammond and George Drissell were all dismissed with just 11 runs on the board.

However, Richard Sillars and former England international and ex-Gloucestershire head coach Mark Alleyne did start to make an impact when they registered 55 and 61 respectively, before being bowled out by Martin and Harvey Jupp, who both snatched three wickets each.

From here their teammates failed to match the performance of the prolific pair, as they petered to a total of 149 all out.

When it was Lechlade’s turn to bat, they made light work of the target set by the Somerset side as Martin’s side were at 33-1 when Ryan Higgins was caught out for 17.

Benny Ellis was the next to go with four, but Brad Dial, who led the scoring with 50 not out, Tom Young and Martin were all putting good shifts in.

Young was just short of a half century with 40, while Martin was on his way with 32 not out as the game came to a close.

Chris Harwood was making his debut for the side and believes an opening day win is just what the club needed.

“It wasn’t a pitch particularly for fast bowling,” said Harwood.

“I was surprised by the ground to be honest because I thought that was really nice, I thought it would have been a little bit smaller.

“The opposition weren’t great. I don’t know the history of their team but they weren’t terrible. We were the better side.

“We should have bowled them out for about 60-odd but we took our foot off of the pedal when we should have rolled them.”