Winscombe 180 all out lost to Butleigh 182-3 by 7 wickets

There comes a time in the course of a season when a side has to demonstrate what it is made of and that moment came for Butleigh on Saturday.

After last week's surrender at Bishop's Lydeard, Butleigh supremo Ade Bush demanded that his players stood up and be counted when they entertained fellow strugglers Winscombe.

Early successes for Josh Berkeley put paid to the Winscombe openers, but when Butleigh faced some resistance from Alan Hunt (49) they began to falter.

On a wicket that saw the bowlers struggling to generate lift, Winscombe began to take toll on Butleigh's tendency to bowl a "four ball" every over.

The arrival of Siya Sibiya was always likely to be a critical point and when he drove his third ball firmly into Alex Chinnock's stomach, Butleigh had their chance.

Unfortunately, by the time Chinnock took his hands out of his pockets, the chance had gone.

With the Butleigh attack beginning to fade in the heat, the much-needed impetus was provided by young firebrand Josh Berkeley.

Generating the pace that was sadly lacking elsewhere, Berkeley (3-43) began to turn the tide and, following his testing spell, Greenwood (1-17) from the pavilion end and Durston (3-30) from the road end turned the screws on the Winscombe lower order.

An increasingly frustrated Sibiya was left stranded unbeaten on 58 while the rest succumbed and a total of 180 was below par at the much-anticipated tea break.

Dave Trevis' run of poor form had led to an urgent search to retrieve his mojo and with the axe poised over his neck, Butleigh's old war horse went out to face the Winscombe attack.

Butleigh suffered the loss of Agutter, White and Spencer by the time the score reached 64, but Trevis clung on as he smashed his way to 74 not out.

It was the arrival of Greg Durston, who might not have played much cricket recently, but whose form never eludes him, who started to take the game away from Winscombe.

Maintaining a steady accumulation of singles interspersed with the occasional boundary, the two combined in a stand of 118 to take Butleigh past their target.