Shipton-under-Wychwood's dream of reaching a second consecutive Persimmon Village Cup final at Lord's is over for this year after a four-wicket defeat at Carew on Sunday.
Having been put in to bat by the Pembrokeshire side, Shipton made a disastrous start when opener Christian Brain was caught behind off the bowling of Matthew Phillips for a duck. Fellow opener Tim Senior and number four Steve Bates also failed to get in the runs, and it was left to captain Simon Hole to rescue the situation with the skipper top scoring with 77.
But Shipton slumped from 150-4 to 165-8 as the middle order failed to fire, and it was left to Jason Hunt to wallop 28 off 22 balls as Shipton posted a target of 193-9 from their 40 overs. Carew opener Ian Sefton hit a quickfire 38 before he was caught off the bowling of Hunt, but Tim Hicks and Tom Richards engineered a fourth wicket stand of 111 to take the home side within sight of the quarter finals.
Hicks finished unbeaten on 67 as Hunt bowled five wides to hand Carew the win with 10 balls remaining.
