Division Five of the Hunts County Bats League was thrust into the limelight this weekend with two derbies on Sunday after Saturday’s wash-out in the Tucker Gardner.

Brampton and Great Staughton were the winners in their games against the second teams from Upwood and Houghton & Wyton – with Brampton now closing in on Ramsey III at the top.

Brampton batted first at Upwood and a cavalier innings by Oli Day (41) and another solid knock by the captain Andy Canham (30) helped the team to a total of 172 for nine.

Upwood lost a wicket to the first ball of their innings due to a run out, but Brampton lost one of their opening bowlers to injury in the second over. Up stepped Paul Greenhow who was to become a thorn in the side for Upwood’s batsmen side with figures of six wickets for 38 runs. Rob Trewin finished off the job with three for 19 with Upwood all out for 117.

Richard Meadows (3-23) and Luca Sarath (3-6) were the Upwood bowlers who did the damage.

Curtis Gallagher, the captain of Staughton, top scored with just 29 for Staughton when they beat Houghton & Wyton by 68 runs.

At 109 all out, Staughton may have thought they had done too little but Houghton’s offering was mild to say the least and after just 25.3 overs they were all out for just 41, Gallagher taking five of the wickets for 16 and Shaun Robinson four for 22.

Gallagher told The Hunts Post: “It was a cracking game which started out rather soggy and we had to dig deep to make a below par 111 all out with myself making 29 and Dean Shipp 18.

“Then with wickets from myself and Shaun Robinson, we were able to skittle Houghton out for 41, despite complaints from the losing side about a pitch we all had to bat on. But I suppose that’s village cricket.!

In Division Two, Alconbury suffered a nine-wicket defeat at leaders Stamford Town, but Huntingdon & District II pulled off a good 22-run win at Cople in Division Three where there was a loss for Warboys II with Bharat Sports – their opponents losing just one wicket in their chase of 153.