WILTSHIRE CCC, sponsored by Wadworth & Co, started their campaign in the Minor Counties Championship with a resounding victory over Wales Minor Counties by an innings and six runs at the beginning of the month.

Russell Rowe won the toss and proceeded to lead from the front with a superb 128, putting on 49 for the opening stand with Tom Caines (19) and 115 for the second wicket with Richard Bates (30).

Although the Wiltshire innings stuttered in the middle, a splendid unbeaten eighth-wicket stand of 128 between Richard Illingworth (88no) and Kevin Nash (60no) took the score to 434-7 when the innings closed after 100 overs.

The partnership between Illingworth and Nash is a record for Wiltshire's eighth wicket.

In reply, Wales collapsed to 130 all out in their first innings with Richard Illingworth returning the figures of 17 overs, 9 maidens, 17 runs and 4 wickets. Kevin Nash took 2-29 and Michael Coles 2-18.

Wales, following on, put up a sterner fight and were all out for 298 scored in 114 overs. Michael Coles took 4-71 and Kevin Nash 3-71 while Richard Illingworth's figures were 26-10-26-1.

This is the first time that Wilts (24pts) has achieved maximum points in a match since three-day cricket has been played.

In contrast, Wiltshire suffered a disappointing loss to Buckinghamshire by 76 runs in the Minor Counties Knockout Cup at Chippenham on Sunday.

On winning the toss, they asked Bucks to bat on a day of overcast skies and the possibility of a rain-reduced match.

The visitors made slow but steady progress in innings held together by their captain, Paul Atkins, who made an outstanding 103 out of the total of 214-7 off the 50 overs.

No other batsman reached 20. For Wiltshire, James Hibberd took 2-25 and Kevin Nash 2-37.

Wilts started their reply badly by losing Russell Rowe for one and the remaining batsmen were unable to score quickly enough against steady bowling on a slow wicket.

Wilts (R Bates 33, K Blackburn 22, Neil Shardlow 21 and Chris Budd 17) were all out for 138 with five overs left.

Wilts are to play a three-day Minor Counties Championship match against Herefordshire at Corsham on June 22/23/24.