THE weather intervened to spoil a finely poised game as Winterbourne travelled to Dinton in their latest County Division 4 West clash.

With showers forecast and the start delayed by 30 minutes, Winterbourne won the toss and decided to bowl first in a match which was reduced to 40 overs a side.

Lance Harwood put Dinton in control right from the off, punishing any loose balls but Joe Cunningham struck in his third over to remove Coombes for 6.

Harwood and Hannaford put on 104 runs for the second wicket and appeared to be building a useful foundation for a huge score with 15 overs still remaining.

However, the introduction of Ed Dadd and Ryan Hughes changed the game, as Dadd caught and bowled Hannaford for 32 and Hughes ripped through the middle order bowling Cridge and Heaven in quick succession.

Matt Newman picked up the wicket of the dangerous Andy O'Neill for just 11 runs and when Hughes had Harwood caught at mid off for an excellent 86, the wheels were well and truly coming off Dinton's innings. They went from 133-3 to 168 all out as last man Allen was run out with 4 balls of the innings remaining. Cunningham returned to finish with figures of 4 for 34 as he took three wickets in 10 balls.

Winterbourne couldn't have got off to a worse start in reply, as Jamie Harvey was bowled for four third ball and Matt Windows followed for a duck in identical fashion two overs later. Allen picking up both of the wickets. Craig Johnson and Charlie Everett looked to rebuild the innings, and it looked as though Winterbourne were on target for a win, keeping up with the four runs an over needed for victory.

Everett decided to take one risk too many though and came down the track to Hanniford and was quickly stumped by Harwood for 25. With dark clouds now heading towards the ground, Ed Dadd tried to hit a couple of boundaries to keep Winterbourne above the rate but was caught on the boundary for four. For the next few overs, Winterbourne failed to keep up with the run rate and when the rain came they were 30 runs short of their target score at 77-4. Craig Johnson was left unbeaten on 28.