A remarkable century by Mark Avison could not save Twyford from defeat in a tight Division 2 contest against Witney Swifts, writes Brian Standish.

After Swifts scored 100 from the last 15 overs to reach 159-9, Twyford were reeling at 76-7 in reply.

But Avison was determined this was going to the wire. With wickets falling around him, Avison was keeping up with the scoring rate on his own.

Swifts got the final wicket by way of a run out with 3.3 overs remaining. Avison certainly deserved better for his outstanding contribution of 106 out of 137.

Tim Young was Broughton's hero as they beat Division 1 champions Westbury by five wickets to record their first win of the season.

Westbury's Richard Treadwell (66) and Chris Swain (38) set the target of 175-8, but Young scored 97 to steer his side home.

Ian Harris (59) put in a captain's performance for Freeland with able support from the Hole brothers. Stuart Hole followed a quickfire 49 not out from 30 balls with a four-wicket spell to clinch the result.

At Garsington, the Brill pair of Paul Smith and Will Buggey steadied the ship after an early collapse.

Will and Darren Cavanagh then winkled out the home side for a 19-run victory.

Division 3 newcomers Langford set a victory target of 225 thanks to a partnership of 98 between Duncan McDonald (84) and Simon Smith (51).

Ed Janes (95) led the Chinnor reply, with able support from Alex Wilson (35) and Andy Broomfield (33), but they ran out of overs just three runs short of victory.

Elsewhere, Swinbrook's Simon Huxtable and Uffington's Howard Preene starred with both bat and ball to see their sides victorious over Minster Lovell and Watlington respectively.

In Division 5, Dave Burgess (48no) and Neil Spearman (35no) saw Hanborough 2nd to a ten-wicket win against Radley.

Rob Graham's 119 ensured victory for Stanton Harcourt against Shrivenham 2nd in Division 6.

The highest score of the day came from Charlbury 2nd as Martin Grimsley (121no) and Tim Jarvis (67) enjoyed a partnership of 197 as they rattled up 259-4 against Watlington 2nd in Division 8.