Oxfordshire finished a disappointing Minor Counties Championship campaign on a high with a 36-run victory over Herefordshire at Banbury yesterday.

Oxon battled back superbly from a poor opening day, when they were bowled out for just 91, to record their first win of the season in the Western Division.

Set 202 to win on the third and final day, the visitors were bowled out for 165, with veteran seamer Keith Arnold and young spinner Adam Cook taking four wickets apiece.

Keith Arnold took ten Hereford wickets in the match for the second year running It was the second year in a row that Arnold had taken ten wickets in a match against Herefordshire.

Last year at Thame he took 16 wickets, including 9-19 in the second innings.

Skipper Rob Williams was delighted with his side's fightback.

"It was a top effort against a very strong side," Williams said. "It wasn't the result people were expecting after the first day.

"We had to bowl very well on the last day, but I believe we won it on the second day with the batting of Cooky, Ben Thompson, Arnie and Tim Smith."

"It is a great way to end a disappointing season, but it doesn't really paper over the cracks.

"There is no disguising the fact that the new three-day form of the game has given us big problems with availability.

"We have not had a settled side this year, and although it was nice to see other players get the chance to play at this level, having a settled team is the key to success. It certainly was the key to our success last year.

"We have got to sit down and work out some sort of arrangement to allow us to get the best players out on a regular basis.

"I don't mean paying players, but something has to be done that gets people to practise together every week and makes them want to turn out every weekend.

"This year has been difficult because I have changed jobs and have not been available all the time and Keith Arnold has been injured. But I can still see the same sort of problems next year.

"Three-day cricket is definitely the way forward on paper, because it gets people playing a better form of cricket, but in practice it is not.

"The idea was to raise the standard of cricket played, but what it has done is to lower the standard.

"You could see that right from the opening Championship game against Shropshire - both sides were a shadow of what they had been a year before." SCORECARD OXFORDSHIRE

First Innings: 91 (K Cooper 5-35, P Humphries 4-24).

Second Innings: 318 (B Thompson 73, A Cook 68, T Smith 41 no, K Arnold 38, Shahbaz Ali 30, S Laudat 34).

HEREFORDSHIRE

First Innings: 208 (K Arnold 6-81, S Laudat 4-54).

Second Innings

(Overnight 9-0)

H Patel c Cook b Arnold...11

R Hughes b Arnold...8

K Pearson lbw Thompson...29

C Boroughs lbw Thompson...11

I Dawood b Arnold...0

G Roberts b Arnold...2

P Sarfaraz b Cook...52

N Davies st Hawtin b Cook...23

P Thomas c Arnold b Cook...10

K Cooper b Cook...1

P Humphries not out...1

Extras...17

Total (all out, 72.1 ovs)...165

Fall: 1-19, 2-22, 3-51, 4-68, 5-68, 6-72, 7-133, 8-159, 9-164.

Bowling: Arnold 36-15-61-4, Laudat 11-4-12-0, Thompson 11-3-34-2, Cook 14.1-2-49-4.

Oxfordshire 20pts, Herefordshire 5