Chard Cricket Club put on a brilliant batting display this weekend to beat visitors Shapwick and Polden by a 64-run margin as four players recorded over 40 runs.

Chard got back to league play in blazing heat after their previous match against Yeovil was abandoned due to rain, and the return of the summer sunshine brought with it a white-hot batting display that hit 259 runs, too much for Shapwick’s batters to match.

The home team opened the batting for the day and although they lost opener Brian Thomson for just five runs in the second over, his followers in the line up more than made up for it.

Thomson’s opening partner Reid Mawdsley teamed up with number three batsman Harvey Evans and the two took the team from 11-1 in the second over to 113-2 in the 22nd before Mawdsley was trapped for LBW.

Mawdsley contributed 49 off 65 balls to the 102-run partnership before his dismissal whilst Evans continued his innings, managing a team-high 65 runs from 96 deliveries, which included nine fours, before also being caught LBW in the 34th over.

With Chard at 155-3 Nathan Johnson joined Jonathan Legg in the middle and the two continued to pile on to the home team’s score.

Legg recorded the team’s second highest score of the day as he took his time over hitting a calm and collected 61 runs, which included seven fours, until he was bowled in the 47th over with Chard at 232-4.

Johnson continued the attack in the final overs of the innings as he hit an unbeaten 41 runs in 53 minutes and Malcolm Cloete joined the line up late to hit a quick 19 runs from 12 balls as Chard recorded 259 runs from the full 50 over innings.

Shapwick came into reply to the score but Chard’s bowlers proved too much.

Cloete, 2-24 from seven overs, opened the bowling and took two wickets early on to put Shapwick at 52-2 after the ninth over before Dominic Williams, 2-39 from nine overs, and J Legg, 1-34 from six, secured wickets in the 12th and 13th to reduce the visitors to 65-4.

Shapwick did then put on their largest partnership of the day to move to 170-6 but wickets from J Legg, Oliver Legg, 1-43 from 10 overs, and Jon Dalwood, 2-17 from 5.1 overs, stopped the charge as Chard bowled the visitors out for 195 runs in the 42nd over, claiming a big 64-run win.