CROWCOMBE suffered only their second loss of the season when they went down by three wickets to Stogumber in the second division of the West Somerset Cricket League.

However, Crowcombe still have an 84-point lead at the top of the table and are firm favourites to win the championship.

Crowcombe, put into bat by Stogumber, were bowled out for 103. Sajid Ahmed top scored with 30, while Josh Newman made 22. L Penny took 5-19, S Yew 3-36 and Nick Bennett 2-21. Stogumber also found it difficult to score runs but G Waldec hit a quickfire 38, while Elias Hayes made 21 and Ben Rexworthy 16. Richard Baker took 4-26.

Sampford Arundel maintained their bid for promotion with a six-wicket victory over Stoke St Mary who were bowled out for 135 in 24 overs. Daniel Batchelor top scored with 30 while Aston Norie made 23 while Will Fewings took 4-27, Charlie Crossley 2-19 and Will Crossley 2-11.

Will Crossley slammed 74 off 55 balls, with 12 fours and three sixes, as Sampford romped home in 25 overs. Ed Crossley made 18 and Oscar Milton 17 while Norie took 2-8.

Lydeard St Lawrence slipped back to fourth after they lost by 82 runs against Churchinford who scored 220-6 in their 40 overs with James Yeabsley scoring 78 off 70 balls, with 11 fours and three sixes, and Andrew Layard 49 while Tom Westcott snapped up 3-40.

Lydeard struggled in reply although opener Tom Meek scored 52 with nine boundaries. Lee Carpenter took 3-38, Kalan Nessling 2-35, Kristian Morgan 2-25 and Chris Roberts 2-7.

Meanwhile, Watchet maintained their unbeaten record in the first division with a four-wicket victory over Morebath. Batting first, Morebath were 24-4 before recovering for an all-out score of 157 with Carl Hooper scoring 44 and Jeremy Turner 32 while Matt Lovell took 4-29, Dom Bowden 3-24 and Eben Harding 2-30.

Batting was not straight-forward for Watchet, however, but they came back from 39-4 to win in the 37th over with Alastair Harrison scoring 56 and Ryan Strong and Harding 20. R Bowden, Sam Nelson and Turner claimed two wickets each.

Victory enabled Watchet to stretch their lead to 37 points over second-placed Kilve who were without a match, both sides having played the same number of games.

Champions Ashbrittle moved up to third in the table after they won by four wickets in a low-scoring game against Over Stowey who were all out for 120 after deciding to bat first. Hayden Langlois (42) was the only Stowey batter who managed to make runs against the Ashbrittle bowling attack of Callum White (6-45) and Leigh Milton-Fyfe (2-17).

Wilfred Embleton (38) and Luke Williams (45) led Ashbrittle to a win with Keiran Barrow taking 2-24.

Bridgetown lost by three wickets to East Huntspill in a match which produced nearly 500 runs. Bridgetown scored 249 all out with openers Freddy Stevens (40) and Dan Sizer (44) in good form, while Peter Matravers hit 39. Ollie Watt (2-35) and Charlie Glew (2-20) were the main wicket-takers. Stars with the bat for Huntspill were Watt (79) and Glew (69) while Tom Gliddon snapped up 2-38 and Simon Costello 2-56.

Brompton Ralph beat Bagbrough by three wickets. Bagborough scored 159 all out with Michael Clark top scoring with 50 while Robert Chiplin took 4-44. Brompton’s top batter was B Poole with 78 not out.