FINCHAMPSTEAD were involved in a close finish at Banbury, going down by just one wicket.

They were forced to make several changes from the side which that had drawn against Tring Park the previous week, with batsman Ollie Soames among those missing after being recalled by Hampshire for 1st XI duty against Somerset at Taunton, only to be dismissed for a duck in the first innings.

His brother, Jason, came into the side for the first time, while there was also a first-team debut for Connor Corlett, an Australian paceman who is on the teaching staff at Crosfields School in Reading.

Greg Smith returned from his hand injury to open the innings, but he soon lost partner Dan Lincoln who was bowled after scoring 12 of the first 15 runs on the board.

Smith (12) fell in a similar way at 46 and the visitors continued to lose wickets at regular intervals.

Billy Rogers tried to play an anchor role, only to be run out on 35.

Toby Albert was trapped lbw for 47 (off 107 balls), while No. 9 Zac Jones contributed 21 from 25 as Finch ended up with a modest 156 all out, from 61.3 overs, with six of the wickets to fall going to the spinners.

Corlett didn't have to wait long for his first Home Counties Premier League Division One wicket, having Ollie Clarke caught by Josh Lincoln for one, and this was after Jones had trapped skipper Lloyd Sabin for nine.

Banbury progressed from 26-2 to 88 before losing their third wicket and when Joe White was dismissed for 49, half the home side were out for 119.

Corlett picked up two more wickets to finish with 3-28 off 14.1 tidy overs, while Jones claimed 2-40 also from 14 before Josh Lincoln struck twice to reduce the hosts 153-8.

With the scores level, Michael O'Donahue ran out Shazad Rana, but Charles Hill (18no) hit the winning boundary off the first ball of the 48th over to secure victory for third-in-the-table Banbury.

The one consolation for Finch was that their 11 bonus points left them sixth in Division One ahead of their home game with bottom club Slough this coming Saturday.