Cheshire debutant Lee Dixon hit a brilliant 169 on his Minor Counties Championship Western Division debut to dash Oxfordshire’s hopes of a first-innings lead on the second day of their clash at Banbury.

With the visitors resuming at 19-3 in reply to Oxon’s 294-8, the home side were seeking to ram home their advantage by taking early wickets.

And they quickly made further inroads into the Cheshire order, reducing them to 74-6.

But then Dixon, who has come up through Cheshire’s Development XI, was joined by skipper Andrew Hall in a record seventh-wicket partnership for the county of 170.

When he was finally out with the score on 316, Cheshire had passed Oxon’s total.

And with the last pair, James Hawley and Dan Berry, taking the visitors to 333-9 off their 90 overs, it gave Cheshire a first-innings lead of 39 runs.

Oxon quickly wiped this out in their second innings, making 84-1 by the close with skipper Ian Hawtin the wicket to fall, lbw to Adam Syddall for 42.

That gave Oxon a lead of 45, leaving the match evenly poised heading into the final day.

But the star of the second day was undoubtedly Dixon.

He came to the crease with Cheshire 41-4 after Syddall became Stuart Hole’s fourth victim.

Ben Spendlove then hit a David Smith delivery straight to Chris Sandbach in the covers, and Nathan Dumelow was bowled by Daniel Rowe to leave Cheshire in dire straits.

But Dixon was unfazed. He batted for four hours and 12 minutes, facing 211 balls as he hit 20 fours and three sixes.

He dominated the record-breaking stand with Hall, which came to an end when the Cheshire captain was stumped by Hawtin off Luke Ryan for 48 with the score on 244.

Richard Logan provided good support, before he was bowled by left-arm spinner Ryan.

And Dixon’s virtually chanceless knock finally came to an end when he was caught by Richard West at deep mid-on off Jimmy Phillips.

Scores: Oxfordshire 294-8 & 84-1. Cheshire 333-9 (L Dixon 169).