HARTLEY Wintney won a high scoring thriller over Andover by one wicket and with five balls to spare, to keep alive their hopes of avoiding relegation.

This was after the visitors scored 323-9, but it was not enough as the home side scored 327-9.

Andover won the toss and elected to bat and openers Andrew Duckworth (32) and Asher Hart (25) put on 55 for the first wicket.

The loss of Hart brought Max Ronar-Lee to the centre and his scored a superb 145.

Along with skipper Matt Hooper (35) they added 123 runs for the sixth wicket as in the end Andover reached 323-9.

Dan Reynaldo (3-66) and Scott Baldwin (3-48) were the chief wicket takers.

The home side needed a good start in reply and Will Kerr (66) and Jonny Kerr (34) made sure of this with an opening stand of 74.

Jonny Kerr was the first man out and was quickly followed by Angus Brown.

However, Will Kerr and Scott Baldwin added 103 for the third wicket, before Kerr departed.

Baldwin then set about keeping the innings going and with James Beckwith (37) they moved the score to 243-5.

Baldwin was the ninth man out, having just fallen short of his ton being out for 97.

However, with the score 304, there was still some work to do for Hartley and last pair Ben Earney (14) and Reynaldo (5) saw them home in a tense finish.

Charlie Ayers, Mike Adams and Matt Hooper all took two wickets each.

Next for Hartley in the league is a trip to OTs and Romsey and a week today (3pm) they travel to Hook and Newnham Basics for their Southern League T20 Cup semi-final clash.