Gerrards Cross Cricket Club made a less than spectacular start to their Home Counties Premier League Division Two campaign with an 80 run defeat against Thame Town.

Thame won the toss and elected to bat on a far from pristine surface. It was a decision which looked to have backfired as they struggled to 69-3 from their first 20 overs.

A measured fourth wicket stand of 75 between Michael Beard (49) and Matt MacDonald (33) led a Thame resistance as they made their way towards 200.

With five overs remaining, Cross appeared to have their opponents under control before the arrival of Hassan Mushtaq at the crease.

The Thame man smashed 39 from just 23 balls as his side scored 44 runs from their final five overs to finish on 225-8.

Cross shared the wicket taking duties between their bowling attack with Jon Denning (1-47), Dan Hampton (1-37), Elliot Green (2-52), Burhan Mirza (2-25) and Joe Bracey (2-44) all striking.

Their response with the bat could not have got off to a much worse start as they lost two wickets in the first three overs before being reduced to 22-3.

Hampton and Sam Westaway did their best to get Cross back on track with respective scores of 36 and 15, but fell victim to Mushtaq who was now showing his prowess with the ball to claim 2-20.

A tricky wicket meant patience was required to get in and establish an innings, unfortunately it was a virtue Cross’ batsmen lacked as they repeatedly gave up their wickets cheaply.

Thame’s Will Sutcliffe would take five catches in the outfield and only Mirza (30 not out) and Denning (20) offered any real hope with the bat for Cross.

The lower order seemed powerless to resist the charms of Thame skipper Michael Higgs who took 5-28 from just 8.2 overs with his inventive spin bowling.

His ruthless spell saw him remove the last five Cross batsmen to leave them on 145 all out from 38.2 overs.

A home match against Horspath on Saturday provides Cross with their next chance to pick up their first win of the season.