Battle of the top flight's top two at Milton Road and Oundle are confident after demolishing Desborough

Stony, Division One champions last season, are the surprise early-season leaders in the top flight, but they will receive their sternest test by far at Oundle who beat Desborough by 89 runs last weekend to put the disappointment of a heavy defeat at reigning champions Finedon behind them.

The top two have both won three of their first four top-flight games in a division that is threatening to be tightly-contested this season. There is just 14 points between the top four with Stony currently six points clear of Oundle.

The table-toppers do have Somerset legend James Hildreth on their books, but he’s suffered a slow start to the season with just 36 runs from his first three innings.

Oundle will fancy their chances even though their overseas capture Waseem Akram Junior, who was expected to lead their bowling attack, has managed just a handful of overs because of injury.

Desborough had beaten Peterborough Town the week before and looked set for a creditable draw at Oundle before losing their last five wickets for just four runs.

Spin twins Harrison Craig (3-17) and Will Park (2-43) did the late damage after early success for seamer Connor Craig (3-29) as Desborough subsided to 167 all out.

Park (54) had earlier led a steady batting effort as Oundle declared after using 48 overs to amass 256-8. Sam Batten (46), Bill Amas (37) and Harrison Craig (34) also made useful contributions.

Oundle seconds are languishing at the bottom of Northants Division Two after a five-wicket defeat at Wollaston seconds. They’ve lost all four matches so far this season.

In contrast Oundle thirds have won all three of their Division 10 matches, the latest by six wickets at home to Long Buckby seconds. The visitors were hustled out for just 78 with Vaisakhi Singh (3-29), Mark Davies (2-1), and Michael Treacy (2-14) doing the bulk of the damage.

Oundle smashed their way into the first round of the Stamford KO T20 Shield with a 79-run win over City CC in a preliminary round tie at Milton Road.

Top order batsmen Akram Junior (56, 29 balls, 5 sixes, 5 fours), Pat Harrington (45, 23 balls) and Conor Craig (44, 25 balls) all made hay as Oundle piled up 207-5 in their 20 overs. Craig and Connel Ray both picked up two wickets as City mustered just 128 in reply.

It was a similar story at Burghley Park as the hosts blasted neighbours Stamford Town by 121 runs. Alex Ashwin plundered 91 from just 54 balls for Park and Ryan Gilmour added 47 in a team total of 203-5.

Mohammed Azhar (3-12), Archie Davies (2-3), Christopher Logan (2-5), and Joshua Weller (2-25) all bowled well as Stamford were dismissed for 82.