THE lower order pulled the Aston Ingham 1st XI's innings out of the fire at home to an Usk CC Friendly XI on Saturday, eighth man Mikey Gooch cracking 84 and 10th man Oliver Dennis 77.

At one point the hosts were 120-8 before the duo's late heroics lifted them to 266 all out on the final ball of their 45 overs.

And then Gooch with six wickets in four devastating overs, including four ducks, helped skittle the visitors out for 115 in the 28th over.

Mikey Gooch took six wickets for Aston Ingham

Aston opener Oliver Henson scored 19, and mid order batsmen Alexander Gooding (15), Nick Merrin (11) and Edward Bell (15), but no one was able to push on in the face of the tenacious Welsh side's attack.

But Gooch decided attack was the best form of defence and fired six sixes and five fours in a 73-ball 84-run knock that only ended when he was last man out stumped trying for another big shot on the final ball.

And Dennis, who joined him at 120-8, blasted 77 off 57 balls, including seven sixes and three fours, with the duo putting on 116 for the ninth wicket before the former was bowled with the score on 236.

That gave the visitors a mountain to climb, and they never got going as Gooch steamed in to take the first six wickets to leave the visitors wobbling at 33-6, with his haul coming for just 12 runs.

Sam Didcote with 3-15 and Gavin Flynn with 1-29 finished off Usk's resistance, with only three batsmen making double figures, with scores of 23, 18 and 13.

It wasn't all smiles for Aston though in the final weekend of warm-up friendlies, with other senior sides losing two other games.

Aston's 2nds lost out by 27 runs away to Newent's 1sts after the hosts reached 164-9 in their 40 overs.

Luke Merchant starred with 59 for Newent, while Aston's Mark Mathias took four wickets backed by braces from Clyde Breetzke and Will Green.

But the visitors' five opening batsmen could only manage 20 scoring runs, and despite a breezy 57 from eighth man Breetzke, they were all out for 137 in the final over, Andrew Brookes taking three wickets and Mike Mason two.

On Sunday, Aston’s Friendly XI lost by four wickets at Huntley after 46 from opener Gwyn Evans and 31 from Jimmy Davies had helped them set a target of 161-6 off 40 overs.

Huntley’s Colin Reeves and Patrick Legge took two wickets apiece before unbeaten fireworks and a 63-run winning stand from Charlie Gayther with 46 and Legge with 24 took the hosts to 164-6 with eight overs to spare, opener Harrison Vickery having earlier scored 40.

Aston’s Dan Smith made inroads with the ball taking 4-28, backed by wickets for Ethan Drew-White and Jenson Arrowsmith.

A storming 88 off 84 balls from Muhammad Zafar, including three sixes and eight fours, helped Fownhope Strollers 1st XI to a 56-run home win over Builth Wells on Saturday.

The hosts reached 232-8 in their 45 overs with Alex Carter also scoring an unbeaten 34, Bradley Lucas 26 and George Wood-Cole 20.

Ben Boswell then took three wickets and Doug Roberts two as Builth were bowled out for 176 in the 40th over.