IC3 Home Counties League: An exciting finish was ruined by the rain in Saturday's local derby between Thame Town and bottom-of-the-table Aston Rowant at Church Meadow.

A much-depleted home side, with six first-teamers on tour to Barbados with Lord Williams's School, were forced to play out time at 77-6 in reply to Rowant's 151-9 dec after a series of rain interruptions.

Play was preceded by the scattering of John Fulkes's ashes over the square in a moving ceremony attended by family, friends and colleagues of the recently deceased Thame chairman.

Steve Merry, deputising for tourist Rob Brooks as skipper, won the toss and inserted Rowant.

Tim Morgan was dropped in the first over at slip off Luke Merry and then endured a further 21 overs for a painful 16 as the young paceman's hostile spell kept both openers in check.

An opening partnership of 59 ended just before lunch when Morgan was stumped off Rajesh Garsondia.

Chris Eaton and Winton Willesee progressed a little better after lunch, but when Steve Merry replaced his son Luke, he and Garsondia strangled the Rowant batting as wickets tumbled.

Rain intevened on two occasions before Garsondia completed his second five-wicket haul for Thame.

He finished with 5-59 off 25 overs and Steve Merry 3-15 as Rowant reached 151-9, declaring before conceeding further bonus points.

Further time was lost to rain which returned again after Thame's openers had put on 31 for the first wicket.

The one-hour delay left Thame with only a further 19 overs to make 120.

They threw the bat and wickets tumbled to Nick O'Hara, who moved the ball around in heavy conditions.

Five middle order batsmen fell for ducks, but opener Manoj Parmar stood firm and completed an excellent 50 as Thame batted out for the draw, finishing on 77-6,

ASTON ROWANT

T Morgan st Collis b Garsondia...16

C Eaton b Garsondia...42

W Willesee b S Merry...44

N O'Hara b Garsondia...4

L Lewis b Garsondia...0

P Plumridge run out...8

D Ridgley c Thomson b Garsondia...8

T Foster not out...5

C Hutton b S Merry...0

P Humphreys b S Merry...0

Extras...24

Total (9 wkts dec, 50.2ovs)...151

Bowling: L Merry 18-2-69-0, Garsondia 25-4-59-5, S Merry 8.2-3-15-3.

THAME TOWN

R Bhatt run out...13

M Parmar not out...55

C Clarke b O'Hara...0

L Merry b O'Hara...0

P Thomson lbw O'Hara...0

T Collis lbw O'Hara...0

R Hooper b Needham...0

R Garsondia not out...0

Extras...9

Total (6 wkts, 28ovs)...77

Bowling: Willesee 5-3-9-0, Foster 3-1-20-0, O'Hara 10-4-18-4, Needham 7-2-26-1, Humphreys 2-2-0-0.

Aston Rowant 11pts, Thame 7