Aston Rowant’s improving form came to an abupt halt when they suffered a convincing six-wicket defeat at home to Division 1 high-fliers Henley in the Serious Cricket Home Counties Premier League on Saturday.

Rowant, who moved off the bottom with a victory over High Wycombe the previous week, never got going after being put in to bat.

The early loss of in-form batsman Alex Jewell,who was adjudged leg before to the bowling of Kyle Hodnett set the tone for a poor batting display.

Wickets fell at regular intervals, leaving Rowant struggling at 82-5 at lunch.

It was left to Leigh Lewis to lead the resistance after the break.

He relished the task of making partnerships with Chris Eaton and Paul Humphreys against some effective bowling from Bjiorn Mordt and Carl Crowe.

Lewis was left stranded by his frequently departing partners on 40 not out and Rowant were only able to reach 164.

Skipper Wesley Morrick gave Rowant hope, taking two early wickets to reduce Henley to 24-2 The introduction of Humph-reys brought another breakthrough to make it 49-3.

Any hopes the hosts had of victory were thwartedy by the partnership of Mordt and Crowe, who put on 98 to take Henley to the brink of victory, before captain Mordt was bowled for 71.

This left Henley 18 runs to get which Crowe and Dave Allaway achieved without any further loss to cement their second place