Struggling Thame Town turned the formbook on its head to record a remarkable League Division 2 West leaders Aston Rowant on Saturday.

The result, which looked most improbable when Rowant stood at 170-1 when they batted first, gives Thame a real chance to avoid relegation.

And it dented Rowant’s title hopes, though they stay three points clear with just three games to go.

The game also illustrated how much Rowant depend on the all-round talents of their skipper Wesley Morrick.

Morrick made 102, having shared an opening stand of 129 with Tim Morgan, after the visitors had been asked to bat first.

With Alex Jewell as his next partner, Morrick completed his century, but was then out.

There followed a quite astonishing collapse as Rowant’s lack of strength in depth was exposed.

The last nine wickets fell for just 26 runs to left-arm spinners Michael Higgs and Jaydeep Bhatti and they were all out in the 60th over for 196.

Higgs returned 5-53, while Bhatti collected 4-55 in their combined 43-over spell.

Thame’s batting has looked vulnerable in recent weeks, but they found a hero in opener Pratik Patel.

Patel dominated a second-wicket stand of 125 with Michael Beard.

Indeed when he was dismissed for 105, the score was only 146-2.

Thame were surely home and hosed.

But Morrick had other ideas as Thame’s lack of batting strength was exposed by Morrick, who raced through the middle order to make it 188-7.

But acting skipper Sam Lachlan edged Thame home to a precioous and unlikely victory.

Morrick, who bowled throughot, returned 5-71, but his Herculean efforts were not quite enough.