HEREFORDSHIRE under-17s rounded off a generally successful campaign with a disappointment when they lost on first innings to Derbyshire, and were forced to follow on, in their final game at Eastnor.

Tom Austwick (5-73) and Chris Wheeler (3-45) were the pick of the Herefordshire bowlers as Derbyshire, led by P Borrington's 92, reached 375.

Austwick (39) and Sam Bendall (40) offered support to top-scorer Andy Aston (54) in the home reply but Herefordshire were dismissed for just 203.

Second time around, Aston again reached 50 and, with Peter Bailey (39 not out) and Tom Bevan (24) also batting well, the home county closed on 153-6.

Earlier in the campaign Herefordshire enjoyed reasonable success in their first four matches. After beating Lincolnshire in a high-scoring game at Colwall, they lost the next two, comfortably at Northumberland and then narrowly away to Cambridgeshire, before bouncing back to get the better of Norfolk.

Herefordshire batted steadily down the order after winning the toss at Gosforth against Northumberland. Nine batsmen reached double figures but only three went on to pass 30 as Herefordshire were bowled out in 122 overs for 260.

Opener Sam Griffiths made 21, Tom McClellan (53) and skipper Mike King (48) to give the innings a useful platform. Of the rest of the order, only Bevan (24) and number nine Luke Cross, with an unbeaten 40, got past 15.

Led by S Tiffen, who made 128 to go with his three wickets, and A Smith (84) the home county rattled along at over four an over and were able to declare their innings at 312-5 after 71.5 overs, a lead of 52. Austwick picked up two wickets.

This left Hereford with a second knock and they reached 124-7 with Bendall (22 not out) top-scoring as six batsmen again reached double figures. Smith backed up his big innings with 3-16.

At March, against Cambridgeshire, Here-fordshire once again batted first. King (71) and Bevan (52) got the innings off to a flying start with a partnership of 128 but the innings subsided from this point, with the last nine wickets going down for the addition of just 97 runs to leave them all out for 225 in 72.5 overs. Aston (22) plus double-figure contributions from Austwick, Cross and Henry Lort accounted for most of the runs.

The home county struggled early on, especially against the bowling of King (5-74), and the game was in the balance at 99-3 before a partnership of 105 between J Coe (102) and E Pearson (44) tilted the match back in their favour. After they were parted the later batsman were grateful that the bulk of the work had been done and Cambridgeshire scraped home by 22 runs, bowled out for 247, with John Terry and Andy Lloyd taking two wickets apiece.

Herefordshire declared their second innings on 181-8 with Bendall (42), Bailey (45) and Wheeler (33) making the biggest contributions. This left the home side with 20 overs to bat and they finished on 107-2 with R Hesketh undefeated on 50.

Herefordshire batted first again Norfolk at Garboldisham and skipper King led from the front once more. He shared another century partnership, 107 for the first wicket, this time with the in-form Kington batsman Ben Stebbings (39). King fell four runs short of a century.

This time the rest of the side carried on the good work to build a big total. McClellan (40), Bailey (29) and Bevan (18) added useful runs, but the icing on the cake was a last wicket stand of 69 between Wheeler (41) and Cross (24). They were eventually all out in the 113th over for 345.

Wheeler (4-76) and King (3-48) swung the game towards Hereford and at 217-9 a comfortable win was expected. T Price (40 not out) and M Young (47) surpassed the efforts of the Herefordshire last-wicket pair, and there was great relief when the final wicket fell at 314 in the 93rd over and victory was achieved by 31 runs. There was no time for a second innings.