Chippenham 1st XI are set for a tense end to the 2010 season. At the present time only 49 points separate top from bottom in West of England Premier 2. Chippenham are currently in 5th place, 11 points clear of the relegation zone and 8 points short of the promotion zone. Chippenham travel to Warminster this week and then entertain Cheltenham next week at home. The run in to the end of season then consists of Thornbury away, Keynsham at home and then Knowle away. The next few weeks could be very interesting! At this point, almost any team could go up and any team could go down!

Chippenham 1st XI travelled to Cheltenham and were keen to make up for the disappointing performance last Saturday. Chippenham senior sides had a lot of unavailabilities this weekend and this resulted in the cancellation of the 3rd XI game.

Cheltenham won the toss and asked Chippenham to bat. Chippenham lost Tom Young early in the game which brought Jack Humphris to the crease. He supported Rob Woodman well before being trapped LBW for 19. Tim Rowson fell quickly giving Cheltenham a lot of  confidence. Rich Bates then chipped in with a solid 22 before being caught bringing captain Paul Bates to the wicket. Paul and Rob added 50 more runs before Rob Woodman was caught down the leg side by the Cheltenham keeper for 62. Unfortunately Paul Bates followed quickly for 32 putting Cheltenham back in the driving seat with Chippenham 149-6. Keeper John Rumble joined Trevor Lloyd at the wicket with 18 overs to go and considerable consolidation work to do. A good partnership of 97 runs between Lloyd (57) and Rumble (25no) brought Chippenham to a very respectable 241 from their 50 overs.  In reply Cheltenham started well and put on 108 for the first wicket. Openers bowlers Ward and Woodman bowled good line and length but were subject to a good batting performance from the Cheltenham opening batsmen. Freegard and Fry replaced the openers with tidy spell of bowling before the spin twins Rich Bates and Trevor Lloyd took over the bowling duties. Cheltenham found Rich and Trev very hard to get away and run rate began to dry up. The pressured bowling and fielding performance took its toll and Cheltenham went from being 108-1 to 116-2. The required run rate continued to grow resulting in Cheltenham requiring 8 runs an over in the latter stages. This proved too much and Cheltenham were bowled out for 224. Wickets for Rob Woodman (1), Lee Ward (2), Rich Bates (2) and Trevor Lloyd (2). Two great run outs made a big difference to the performance also. A great team performance from Chippenham with the bat and ball. Everyone pulled together under pressure and proved that team work is essential in cricket. Next week Chippenham entertain Thornbury at home.

The 2nd XI entertained Bath at home. With a depleted side, Chippenham struggled to 132 all out in 41 overs. In reply Bath knocked off the total for 3 wickets in 22.4 overs.

The 3rd XI game was cancelled due to player unavailability.