BARNT Green CC First XI are just two games way from Lord's after easing through to the quarter-finals of the national club championship last Sunday.

Lyndon Jones' side romped to an emphatic six-wicket home victory against Cheshire side Bowden in the last 16 to set up a clash with Bootle on Sunday week.

The Cherry Hill Road side restricted the visitors to 166-7 before reaching their target comfortably with six overs to spare.

Skipper Jones highlighted his team's bowling and fielding as the main reasons behind their success.

He said: "The cricket we played in the first half was top notch. We bowled and fielded really well. We wanted to bottle them up and put a squeeze on their batters and that's exactly what we did.

"We were maybe a little over-confident with the bat and some of our shot selection was awry, but we know that our batters are hitting form and that we'd chase their total."

But, despite being confident, Jones is taking nothing for granted with Bootle.

He added: "Bootle will be tougher - they're street-wise and have some destructive hitters in their side. At the moment however, I wouldn't want to play against us."

Bowden batted first on a dry pitch but John Hayden and Gavin Haynes pegged back their openers, with three wickets between them, although Crozier stood firm to strike a patient 80.

Moncrieffe and Richard Illingworth also took three wickets between them and some smart catching by Haynes and numerous pieces of intelligent fielding saw Bowden finish on 166-7 from 45 overs.

In reply, Barnt Green's Matt Dallaway hit a welcome 42 but his side lost silly wickets and, at 81-3, the situation looked tricky.

But the experienced Illingworth (39 not out) calmed the nerves and, together with positive batting from Jones (30no), Green reached their target with six overs remaining.