CHARLTON DOWN 97-1 (20pts) beat ABBOTSBURY 96 (1pt) by nine wickets

A DEVASTATING spell of bowling from 16-year-old Dan Stevens saw Charlton Down take a massive leap towards promotion to Division Three with an emphatic nine-wicket victory over rivals Abbotsbury.

After winning the toss, Abbotsbury looked comfortable at 27-0 after nine overs until the impressive Stevens struck three times in 10 balls.

Firstly he took a simple return catch to remove captain Aaron Oliver for 13 and then the hard hitting Simon Allen was caught at mid-off by Marc Spurway.

He then saw the back of Nick Kneebone, who nibbled at a beautiful away swinger to be well caught at slip by Roger Frapwell.

With Stuart Gill being caught off Spurway (3-44) by Sid Dunford, Abbotsbury slumped to 32-4.

Chas Duerdoth and Chris Backhouse tried to rebuild the Abbotsbury innings but a change of bowling saw Javed Gill (1-13) bowl the dangerous Duerdoth with the score on 64-5.

Spurway then struck twice, bowling the experienced Backhouse for 22 and then wicketkeeper Rob Deadman caught Fran Pitman for five with the score on 78-7.

Matt Stevens (1-12) and Dan Stevens then both picked up further wickets, before Jae Miller bowled Grafton Straker to finish the Abbotsbury innings on 96.

Unsung hero wicketkeeper Deadman produced another excellent display behind the stumps.

The Charlton Down batsmen made quick work of chasing down the target of 97 losing only Miller to Duerdoth.

It was left to teenagers Jack Eveleigh (24no) and Nick Voss (54no) to punish anything wide or over pitched to find the boundary.

Eveleigh played with sound defence and Voss reached his 50 off 51 balls with a sumptuous drive to the mid off boundary, followed by a similar shot to the mid-on boundary to guide the hosts to victory.

They now require 13 points for promotion into Division Three and a further 34 points to go up as champions.