BELSTONE needed a convincing victory in the 20-over Buckley Cup game last week to close the gap on Yeoford at the top of the table.
Batting first, there were reasonable contributions all down the order with six batsmen reaching double figures, but the final score of 86 for 9 looked to be well within Yeoford's grasp, as two weeks ago they had reached 118 without trouble to beat Belstone.
However, a strong attack of Eddy Jones (3-13), Trevor Munkenbeck (3-6), Greg Cornish (2-6) and Fraser Willis (2-10) had other ideas as, for the second evening game in a row, the opposition lost their first 6 wickets with fewer than 10 runs on the board.
Collins (16) and Ezard (15) then took Yeoford to 40 for 6 before the rest of the wickets fell in a flurry leaving them all out for 44 in the 16th over.
Yeoford have now completed their Buckley Cup fixtures and have 61 points; with one game to play, against Spreyton at home tonight (Thursday), Belstone need 11 points to overtake them and retain the cup.