Trinity Mid- Whitgiftian 245-6 (R Warne 72, R Nowell 75*).

Metropolitan Police 133.

Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian won by 112 runs.

Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian moved into third place in Division Three as half-centuries from Robert Warne and Richard Nowell set up an impressive 112-run win over Metropolitan Police on Saturday.

Mids were invited to bat first after losing the toss for the first time this season but they began well as Kunal Patel continued to prosper in his new opening role.

Graham Cobbett scored 11 before late cutting a ball from Tony Dayes into the gloves of keeper Jayasinghe but Patel played beautifully again, scoring 48 before driving to Fretwell at mid-off.

Christian Bond hit 25 from just 20 balls as Mids continued to bat with flair before he was given out caught behind off the bowling of Guy Wilson.

At 110-3 the game could have swung either way but Warne and acting captain Nowell showed all their experience to ensure that there was no repeat of last week’s late collapse.

After 10 overs of quiet consolidation, they began to score freely and exposed the visitors’ aging legs in the field as 60 runs came from just six overs.

Despite using seven bowlers the Police were unable to find any real penetration as the TMW pair put on 114 for the fourth wicket.

Police captain Fretwell, the pick of their bowlers, eventually broke the stand as Warne was caught by Porter but Nowell continued to finish unbeaten on 75 before Mids declared after 50 overs on 245-6.

Both sides lost potentially valuable overs as the start of the Police reply was delayed by rain but when play resumed openers Jayasinghe (26) and Turner (30) took the score beyond 50 and kept the Police just short of the required run rate.

They suffered a setback when both batsmen were out bowled in successive overs by Mark Roberts and Gavin Piper respectively.

Porter (28) did his best to sustain the momentum but with few runs coming at the other end the pressure started to build and he was eventually caught and bowled by Mike Brugnoli.

Two excellent catches in the deep from Christian Bond to dismiss Greig and Phillips eliminated any real likelihood of the Police winning the match as they slipped to 103-6.

Mids went on to complete their third consecutive win in efficient fashion as Nowell took two wickets in his first two overs and brought back Roberts at the other end to finish off the tail.

Roberts continued his good form to return figures of 3-44 while Tony Brugnoli picked up 3-34.

After a three week absence Stewart Sales returns to lead the side as Mids seek to close the gap on second-placed Valley End when the two sides meet at Lime Meadow on Saturday.