A SUPERB display of seam bowling by Luke Merry and Sam Lachlan set up Thame's convincing six-wicket victory at home to derby rivals Kidlington in Division 2 West of the Home Counties Premier League on Saturday.

With Thame skipper Rob Brooks asking Kidlington to bat first, both Merry and Lachlan bowled with great accuracy and discipline to rip the heart out of the Kidlington top order The visitors never came to terms with the new ball and struggled to 70-6 at lunch.

As the ball became softer, Kidlington recovered after lunch, with useful contributions from Noel Pearson (34no) and Shazad Rana (27).

Good spells from Michael Higgs (2-25) and overseas recruit Jaydeep Bhattii (1-46) contained the partnership and restricted Kidlington to 143 all out.

However, the stars were Lachlan, who took 4-46, and Merry, who returned 2-20 off 15 overs.

In reply, Thame suffered two early setbacks, losing Lachlan and Adam Krol to a determined and typically hard-working spell from David Taylor, who took all four wickets to fall for 30 runs.

However, Manoj Parmar (54no) steadied the ship and batted through to earn Thame's first win of the season and leave Kidlington, last season's promotion contenders, bottom of the table.