A treacherous batting surface and difficult rain conditions were not enough to prevent Marlow picking up a valuable win against Stoke Green on Saturday.

Having lost the toss the Thames Valley Cricket League Division One side were put into bat on a grassy wicket.

After losing their first wicket in the sixth over with just 16 on the board, they dealt with the conditions well to recover strongly.

Barny Hogg (44 not out) formed the backbone of the fightback and was joined by Joe Brown to put on 42 for the second wicket.

Once brown fell, the inform Graham Paskins (47) ensured Marlow’s dominance only grew as he and Hogg shared an 82 run partnership.

Hogg Was proving to be the main threat with the bat as he began to open up and go after the Stoke attack.

It would be he and captain Kevin Hudson who saw out the end of the Marlow innings as heavy rain prevented them completing their overs.

A score of 191-3 from 42 overs was boiled down to a target of 201 from 20 overs for Stoke using the Duckworth Lewis System.

An early wicket appeared to have put Marlow in the ascendency, but an impressive counter attacking innings of 68 from Madim Malik helped keep the game in the balance.

He and Conrad Louth (45) put on 69 for the third wicket and Stoke looked set to chase down their target.

The departure of Malik in the 17th over would prove to be vital though as the pendulum swung back in Marlow’s favour.

Malik’s departure came amid a flurry of Stoke wickets as they looked to up the run rate in pursuit of Marlow.

They would eventually fall 22 runs shy of their target on 179. Iman Nawaz was the standout performer with the ball for Marlow as he finished with four wickets to wrap up the Stoke tail.

Marlow will look to build on the win when they take on Cove away from home on Saturday.