HARTLEY Wintney are still searching for their first win of the season, after losing by 150 runs to visiting Southern League Division Two leaders Trojans.

Trojans captain Ed Boyd won the toss and decided to bat. The home side bowled well for the first 10 overs, but were unable to make a break through.

This allowed openers Boyd and Simon Williams to move the total to 130-0 after 25 overs.

A score of 300 plus looked on the cards at the picturesque village setting, but the home side hit back as Danny Plume snapped up the wicket of Williams for 74, thanks to an excellent catch from James Millward with the score on 149.

The Trojans were then further pegged back, as they lost three more wickets for just 21 runs.

Dan Babidge (8) was trapped leg before by Thomas Garwood (2-30) and then opener Boyd (64) was caught by Patrick Joseph off the bowling of Scott Baldwin.

It soon became 170-4, as James Trucott was caught behind by wicket keeper Rich Hill for Garwood's second wicket.

This brought Nigel Le Bas to the centre, where he joined Syed Mahmood and the pair scored the bulk of 89 runs from the final 10 overs of the Trojans.

Mahmood (47) was the fifth man out for the visitors, again caught behind off the bowling of Joseph.

This was the last wicket to fall as Le Bas finished unbeaten on 42 with most of his runs coming from four sixes, one against Rhys Batcup and three off the bowing of Ollie Waddington.

Jamie Donaldson was the other not out batsman scoring 18 from 12 balls including a maximum off Joseph, as Trojans finished on 279-5.

This set the home side with a task of scoring 280 for victory at a rate of 5.6 an over.

However, they were soon in trouble as opener Garwood was caught at cover point by Jordan Wright, which gave Jamie Donaldson (3-33) his first wicket.

This brought Hartley captain Plume (18) to the centre and along with opener Matt Kerr (19) they looked to have steadied the ship as they reached 48-1.

However, both were caught in the slips by Mahmood to leave the home side on 55-3.

The Trojans' bowlers continued to dominate as the home side found themselves with their top five back in the pavilion with 73 on the board, following the departure of Joseph (5) and Baldwin (15) again, thanks to another couple of slip catches from Mahmood as Faisal Frahim took 2-26.

Only Will Ross with an excellent unbeaten 29 was able to get to grips with the visitor’s attack, which included a lovely six off the bowling of Mario Mohmmed.

Spinner Nick Freeman struck with his first having James Beckwith trapped leg before and it was left to James Wright (2-39) to wrap up the innings.

After the game, Hartley captain Danny Plume said: “If I had won the toss I would have batted.

“We bowled well early on, but just did not get the luck and it was pleasing to see the resolve of this team as we managed to limit them to less than 300.

“Unfortunately, once again we have failed to click with the bat, but I am confident we have enough talent in this team to turn things around.”

Next up for Hartley is a trip to Paultons.