Oundle Town beat Peterborough Town at Bretton Gate, but will the shift in local power at Northants Premier Division level be permanent?

Thanks largely to a career best 8-36 from Cambs left-arm spinner Harrison Craig, it’s Oundle Town riding high in third place and looking forward to a summit meeting with leaders and reigning champions Finedon at Milton Road next Saturday (May 27, 11am) after a three-wicket success against Peterborough Town at Bretton Gate yesterday.

For the city side it was a third straight defeat in completed matches in the top-flight and that can’t have happened to often in recent years to a team that has not finished outside the top two for a decade, but who now find themselves languishing in seventh after a timid display against their neighbours.

Only Nick Green with bat and ball showed any seriously positive intent, and only for the first 10 overs and the final knockings, did any great urgency in the field arrive. Oundle panicked a little towards the end before easing past Town’s modest 151 with almost 15 overs to spare. Craig took the last eight wickets to fall. He’d only previously taken eight in a game once before, in a Minor Counties match for Cambs.

The visitors were worthy winners. They bowled tightly, set intelligent fields and held on to couple of tough, and very key, catches.

It hasn’t helped the hosts this season that Josh Smith, scorer of over 1,000 Premier Division runs last summer, has yet to reach double figures this term. He swatted away an early long hop from Prim Patel yesterday only to see Tom Norman pull off an excellent catch.

Green made a decent 56 as Town battled to 80-2, but his departure to a Craig full toss, following a mini-collapse left his side at 95-6.

Alex Mitchell and Lewis Bruce added 45 for the seventh wicket, but there was a late flurry of wickets to poor shots against the nagging accuracy of Craig and 151 was never likely to get the job done, especially as regular opening bowlers Mark Edwards and Jamie Smith, who would have enjoyed the conditions, were both absent.

Green did his best in a hostile opening spell when he regularly beat the bat and also looked unfortunate when a big lbw shout against Oundle skipper Tommy Simeons was turned down.

It turned out to be a crucial decision as Simeons battled through a torrid opening to top score with 53 before becoming one of three victims for Bruce.

His departure was part of a slump from 100-2 to 142-7, but victory was achieved with a lot of time left which reflected a superior all-round performance.

Such are the vagaries of the Northants League rules both teams actually dropped a place in the table. There are five extra points on offer for a team who win batting first and Geddington took advantage of that to sneak above Oundle.