Ledbury finished their Marches League division three campaign in fine style with an emphatic nine-wicket victory against a woeful Talgarth side.

LEDBURY v TALGARTH II

Skipper Ehrlich was once again successful at the coin toss and inserted the visitors on a wicket that was drying out after morning drizzle.

Ledbury's bowlers did not waste this advantage and Duckworth had Baker snapped up by the diving Griffin, in the fourth over. At the other end, Steve Evans again bowled straight through his 12 overs and was well-rewarded for a consistent spell and keeping the ball pitched-up to the batsman. He claimed the wickets of Parry (16), Pugh well caught by Jones for a dangerous looking 19 and Lewis, who made a turgid 15 in 22 overs. Evans finished up with 3-24.

Ledbury's support bowlers, Jones and Embrey, continued the good work. Jones claimed the wicket of Farr, and Embrey, for the second week running, cleaned up the lower middle order with a tight spell of swing bowling to claim figures of 3-13.

Talgarth were all out for 104.

In response, Ledbury's openers continued from the previous week's stand and set about making short work of the target.

The Talgarth tactic of intimidating bowling and field placements simply backfired on them as their bowlers served up a number short balls which Ehrlich and Yeoman proceeded to pull to the leg-side boundary. With fielders surrounding the bat, runs were easy to come by.

It was only when 14-year-old J Baker came into the attack was the ball put into the right areas and he was rewarded for an impressive spell of bowling when he had Ehrlich brilliantly caught by the diving Pugh for 45 (8 4s), ending an opening partnership of 80.

This brought Rob Greening to the wicket and with Yeoman (29no) now content to drop anchor, he went on the offensive, hitting trademark drives in a quickfire 16no to take Ledbury home in the 21st over.

This ended Ledbury's campaign for the season and they are likely to finish just outside the promotion placings, a poor run of three defeats in July costing them a return to division two.

But with a lot of talent emerging throughout the season, they will look to improve upon this next time.

This weekend, the club hosts two finals, the Marches Division five Knock-Out tomorrow (Saturday) starting at 1.30pm and the final of the Evening League, all day Sunday, where LTFC are going for their fourth consecutive title.