CHIPPENHAM inflicted a heavy defeat on Gloucester City Winget to go secondin the Gloucester and Wiltshire Division on Saturday.

Chippenham eventually won by 103 runs but made an indifferent start to the match. Gloucester won the toss and put Chippenham in bat, who lost four early wickets at 30 for four.

Captain Steve Silk and Richard Bates then put on a partnership of 40 to consolidate their team's position. In the second half of their innings Chippenham added a further 140 runs to their total and finished on 211-9 from 50 overs.

The top batsmen for Chippenham were Bates (74), Silk (30) and Paul Clifford who made an impressive 44 off just 27 balls.

Clifton Folkes opened the Chippenham attack in style taking two wickets for just seven runs. Some solid fielding and a one-handed catch from Tom Young kept Gloucester's score down and they were eventually bowled all out for just 108 runs.

Skipper Steve Silk said: "We did our usual thing of losing the toss and we had a steady start to say the least losing early wickets and having to rebuild.

"Myself and Richard Bates then put together a decent partnership, which made Gloucester go quiet for a bit.

"Also in that period we had a bit of light drizzle, which meant that the ball got wet and stopped swinging around as much.

"Then in the last 25 overs we went onto score 140 runs, which gave us a good total. We would normally be a bit worried with 211 on the Gloucester track but it was greener than normal, which enabled us to put pressure on them. Clifton had a great game with the ball and there was also some fantastic fielding and catches.

"Tom Young took a terrific one-handed catch, which in my opinion changed the game because at that point they had gone from 40-5 to 90-5 so that catch turned the tide."

Chippenham play newly promoted Wootton Bassett tomorrow but will be without Bates so Tim Rowson comes in after scoring 60 and 40 in the second team.

Silk added: "We are reasonably confident because we are playing decentcricket at the moment.

"But Wootton Bassett are currently fourth in the division after coming uplast season so they have had a good first half of the season and will want to keep improving, but we're looking for a win.

"Richard Bates can't play because he is going to a KT Tunstall concert."