Oxfordshire are on course for their first Minor Counties Championship Western Division win of the season after gaining the upper hand on the opening day of their clash at Brockhampton.

Oxon were bowled out for 210 after winning the toss and electing to bat.

But then they rolled Herefordshire over for just 100 to take a first-innings lead of 110.

And they stretched this to 126 by the close as Lloyd Sabin and nightwatchman Francois Vainker reached 16-0 in Oxon’s second innings.

The first of 20 wickets to fall on the day was that of Oxon skipper Richard Kaufman for 17, caught by David Exall at second slip off Greg Leighton.

Sabin and Jamie Perkin took the score to 73, before the former was trapped lbw by Nick Powell for 29.

Perkin was then caught at second slip by Ben Stebbings off Chris Boroughs for 31.

Charlie Knightley hit a delivery from Callum Stewart straight to Harshad Patel at cover to leave Oxon 115-4.

Jonny Cater played fluently while wickets continued to fall with Chris Watling and David Smith going cheaply to Stewart and Boroughs respectively.

When Cater finally fell, bowl-ed by Powell for 77 off 80 balls with 15 fours, Oxon were 204-7.

And Daniel Rowe, Vainker and Chad Keegan quickly followed as the innings came to a swift conclusion, with Boroughs finishing with 4-57 and Powell 3-45.

But Keegan quickly hit back with a fiery opening spell to reduce Herefordshire to 9-3.

He bowled Ben Stebbings for a duck, and then shattered the stumps of Adshead and Boroughs with consecutive balls.

Herefordshire were 26-4 when Exall was run out by Watling.

Andy Kimberlin was trapped lbw by Daniel Rowe for a golden duck to make it 27-5.

Rowe then bowled Chris Walker, before Vainker came on to win an lbw verdict against Tom Austwick.

There was no way back for Herefordshire, and Ashley Blanchard joined in the fun for Oxon by having Patel caught at first slip by Kaufman.

Leighton was stumped by Cater off Vainker for a duck, before the Oxford left-arm spinner wrapped up the innings by trapping Stewart lbw without scoring to finish with figures of 3-12 .

It was only Powell’s unbeaten 23 which saw Herefordshire to three figures, while Keegan finished with 3-43.

Sabin and Vainker then safely negotiated eight overs before stumps to cap an excellent day for Oxfordshire.