Uphill Castle CC put on a brilliant bowling display against rivals Winscombe this weekend as they toppled the home team for less than 100 runs before going on to complete a three-wicket victory.

Castle put together an all-round bowling performance that saw four bowlers return to Uphill with two wickets to help skittle their opponents for just 98 runs in the 31st over.

Winscombe elected to bat first and Castle’s bowling attack made an immediate impact.

Chare Smith’s first over was a maiden and Cox took the first wicket in the second before Winscombe had recorded any runs off the bat.

In fact, it wasn’t until the third over that Winscombe’s batters would get their first score Castle’s bowlers smothered them.

Smith, 2-23 from seven overs, took his first wicket of the game at the start of the ninth and within three overs Cox and Smith both got their second wickets, putting Winscombe at 33-4.

Smith and Cox continued to bombard the Winscombe line up as they kept their run rate down until Charlie Huke, 1-18 from five, and Himesha Halneththige, 2-26 from 7.5, joined the attack in the 15th.

The two worked effectively together until Huke took his first wicket in the 21st over and Halneththige matched him with a wicket in the 25th, putting Winscombe at 77-6.

Castle’s final bowler Markus Bail, 2-11 from four, then joined the party and struck just three overs later, taking two wickets in four balls and reducing Winscombe to 92-8 in the 28th over.

Three overs later Halneththige secured a run out and claimed Winscombe’s final wicket within five balls, stopping the home team’s innings at just 98 runs.

Ben Castle opened the batting for Castle and hit a calm 17 runs to get his team off to a solid start while partner Smith was caught for a duck just three balls in.

James Wakefield then joined the attack but could only muster three runs before Cox was removed for nought with the next ball, putting Castle at 5-3.

But Tom Llewellyn and Paddy Holyday came into hit 15 and 14 runs to calm nerves before tailender Bail hit a team-high 32 runs to take Castle to the three-wicket win by the 29th over.

Uphill Castle now sit 6th in the Premier Division of the Somerset Cricket League and go on to play Lympsham & Belvedere CC on June 12th and North Perrott CC on June 15th.