WILTSHIRE suffered a heavy 222-run defeat to reigning Unicorns Championship champions Berkshire.

Neil Shardlow’s men headed to Newbury full of confidence following their success over Dorset in their previous outing, however, the Western Division leaders proved too strong throughout the three days.

Skipper Ed Young said: “They have been a strong side for a while now and we knew that going into the fixture.

“It was always going to be a tough challenge but I thought we played some really good cricket, it’s just unfortunate we didn’t play it for a long enough period of time.

“There were good performances and lots of encouraging stuff. Tahir Afridi was very good with the ball, Joe King got a six-fer, Mike Reynolds batted nicely in both innings, as did Neil Clark.

“There were signs of good cricket, we just couldn’t do it for long enough, or more importantly, for longer than Berkshire did, so we couldn’t get on top of the game.”

On the opening day, Berkshire racked up 311, with James Riston run out for 93, while Euan Woods struck 83 and Chris Peploe chipped in with 60. Tahir Afridi was the pick of the Wiltshire bowlers with 4-58.

By the close of play, the visitors had slumped to 120-7 as wickets fell at regular intervals.

On the second day, Neil Clark fell early on as he could only add six to his overnight score of 40.

However, Wiltshire managed to avoid the follow-on as they reached 172 before being bowled out, with wicketkeeper Billy Cookson hitting 33.

Berkshire began their second innings with a lead of 139 and soon looked to build an unassailable lead.

With the Wiltshire seamers struggling to keep the home side in check, skipper Young brought himself and Joe King into the attack and the spin duo shared eight wickets, with King claiming 6-81.

However, by the time Berkshire were dismissed, they had added a further 288 runs to their lead, leaving Wiltshire a target of 428.

However, wickets began to tumble early on, with the visitors slumping to 30-3, although Ashur Morrison and Jake Goodwin shared a fourth-wicket stand of 37 before both fell.

Neil Clark hit a brisk 40 before he departed late on the second day as the county closed on 154-6.

With four wickets in hand on the final day, Mike Reynolds (48) and Afridi’s 73-run seventh-wicket stand took Wiltshire past 200 but that quickly became 205 all out as Tom Nugent picked up 5-48.