OXFORDSHIRE'S cricketers secured a place in the last eight of the MCC Trophy with a comfortable eight-wicket win over Nottinghamshire in the third of their four group matches at Challow yesterday.

As Leicestershire's game against Staffordshire was rained off, Oxon cannot now be caught at the top of their group.

The quarter-final will be played at Thame on Sunday, July 19, with Suffolk the likely opponents.

Oxfordshire were excellent in their previous victories in this competition over Huntingdonshire and Staffs, and they carried on in the same vein yesterday, despite the late withdrawal of star batsman Stewart Laudat because of illness.

Their spinners performed oustandingly well as the visitors were shot out for 175 in 59 overs, a total which was probably 75 runs short of being challenging.

And then Bruce Ellison, Ian Hawtin, who made a fine half-century, and skipper Rob Williams batted sensibly to see Oxon home with plenty to spare.

Bicester & North Oxford spin twins Arwyn Jones and Paul Jeacock bowled tightly in the first session after Notts had won the toss and opted to bat.

Jones was so miserly, in fact, that there were just four scoring shots in his opening spell of nine overs.

At lunch, Notts were 94-4 from 41 overs. They had to get on with it after the interval, but any chance they had of setting a testing target disappeared when Oxon took three wickets in the space of five balls.

First, David Taylor, who had brilliantly run out Anthony Romaine, had Karl Thomas caught at mid-on and two balls later he yorked James Hindson. Ian Curtis then bowled John Turner with the first ball of the next over.

Some loose bowling allowed Notts to stage a recovery, John Shaw and Jamie Hemmings, the son of former England spinner Eddie, adding 55 for the eighth wicket, before a deserved wicket for Jones and a brace of run-outs brought the innings to a close. Oxon's last group game takes place at Aston Rowant on Sunday, June 28.

l Shropshire County Cricket Club have handed an official warning to their players about their behaviour in the wake of last weekend's Minor Counties Champion-ship clash with Oxfordshire.

The game ended in acrimonious circumstances when Oxon's Keith Arnold aimed a punch at an opponent.

It amounts to an admission that the Shropshire players were in part to blame for the flare-up.

Oxon acted quickly and suspended Arnold for two games.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

G Weston st Hawtin b Jeacock 25

A Romaine run out 11

S Musgrove c Hawtin b Jeacock 7

K Thomas c Ellison b Taylor 27

K Tate c Savin b Curtis16

J Turner b Curtis 7

J Hindson b Taylor 0

J Shaw b Jones 26

J Hemmings not out 24

S Randall run out 1

M Whiley run out 1

Extras 30

Total (all out, 39 ovs) 175

Fall: 1-26, 2-42, 3-61, 4-88, 5-114, 6-14, 7-114, 8-169, 9-171.

Bowling: Savin 12-3-31-0, Shahbaz Ali 7-1-24-0, Jones 11-5-14-1, Jeacock 12-2-28-2, Curtis 12-1-34-2, Taylor 5-0-28-2.

OXFORDSHIRE

I Hawtin lbw b Welton 62

B Ellison run out 29

R Williams not out 45

C Knightley not out 12

Extras 30

Total (2 wkts, 54.3 ovs) 178

Fall: 1-83, 2-130.

Bowling: Whiley 9-2-19-0, Hemmings 9-1-31-0, Hindson 12.-2-31-0, S Shaw 6.3-0-32-0, Randall 12-4-23-0, Welton 6-0-32-1.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.