STROUD thirds defeated rivals Frampton to keep them in touch of the top two in SDCA Division One.

Captain Barry Wright won the toss and chose to bat on a wicket that, despite the continued showers during the day, played fair and true.

Openers Dave Moore (26) and Rich Tuttle (15) made a steady start before the former was bowled by Iain Murray (10-1-42-2) who also yorked Tuttle soon after to have the hosts on 48-2 from 10 overs.

Wright (24) then built a watchful partnership with Ollie Cooper, dealing well with the good stuff and punishing the bad at every opportunity.

When he departed the scene Cooper was joined by the formidable Nathan Moore.

With such muscle at the crease the score-rate was liable to surge and so it did as both flayed Toby Burgess (9-1-35-1), Keiron Birch (7-1-54-1) and Karl Saunders (2-0-17-0) into the surrounding undergrowth.

When Moore (30) was bowled by Sam Burns (5-0-40-1) Ollie Holmes (23) and Tom Legg (14 n.o.) aided Cooper in his journey towards 85 not-out as Stroud cantered along to a total of 261 for five from their 40 overs.

Runs on the board always set jitters in the chasing team and when your opening bowling attack consists of Aaron Collins and Dave Gibbs those jitters can become panic very quickly.

Collins bowled a steady line and was unfortunate to finish wicketless (5-2-15-0) but Dave Gibbs unleashed his storm, uprooting the stumps of Karl Saunders (6) and getting Iain Murray to feather an absolute snorter behind for a duck.

Gibbs’ return to playing for Stroud has lifted the entire club and figures of two wickets for five runs from five overs plus some amazing fielding was the turn that made this victory.

The next attacking pair gave no respite, Tom Wigley (7-0-35-2) explored all kinds of line and length to bowl George Malpass for a duck and Birch for three while Harry Burns (4-0-25-2) beguiled Driver-Dickerson (13) and eventually Paul Malpass (8) into playing all around some zooming spin and losing their bails.

Tom Legg dutifully wrapped it all up, bowling Toby Burgess for two and Lewis Lamb for four to seal a massive 161 run win for the SCG hosts.

Star Man: Ollie Cooper.