GOATACRE suffered mixed fortunes at the weekend, losing Saturday's Gloucestershire and Wilts Division Two game to Marshfield by one wicket but thrashing Shrewton by 155 runs in Sunday 2 June's third round game in the National Village Knockout Cup.

On Saturday Goatacre elected to bat first on a slow pitch where runs were hard to come by.

Rob Turner scored 28 of the first 36 runs before he fell lbw to Crockett, and from then on no batsman really came to terms with the pitch as excellent bowling by Matty Watson, with four for 32 from 12 overs put a stranglehold on the Goatacre innings.

Only Curwood with 36 and Jif Wilkins with a careful 34 made any sort of score as Goatacre were bowled out in the final over for 165.

Run scoring proved equally difficult for Marshfield and at 117-7 with 10 overs remaining, the match was in the balance as New Zealander Crawford came to the wicket. He took 17 from one Curwood over but wickets continued to fall as Marshfield reached 140-9 with five overs left.

A couple of singles left 12 required from the final three balls, but no problem for Crawford who promptly smashed two enormous sixes to win the match with a ball to spare, which left Marshfield the winners.

Goatacre v Shrewton

IN a game rearranged after last week's rain, Goatacre captain Peter Turner won the toss and decided to bat against opponents who had won on their last visit to Goatacre.

With the score reaching 43-3 from 10 overs, Goatacre were in some trouble before Kevin Iles joined Curwood at the crease and watchful batting took the score to 86-3 from 20 overs.

There followed an amazing onslaught on the change bowlers as Iles and Curwood went on the attack hitting boundaries at will. Their partnership reached 161 when Iles was caught for 59 but Curwood went on to a brilliant century. Jif Wilkins kept the momentum going, smashing 41 from 25 balls in a partnership of 90 in seven overs with Curwood, who finished with 137 out of Goatacre's 305-8 from 40 overs.

In reply, although posting a 50 run opening partnership with Stormouth batting well for 33, Shrewton were never close to the required run rate, and when Jif Wilkins came on to take the first three wickets, their chance had gone. Rahu Heer with 2-31 from nine overs and Kevin Iles 2-22 from nine overs bowled well as Shrewton batted tamely to end on 150-8.