Thame Town suffered an agonising one-run defeat against Cove in a dramatic Home Counties League Division 2 West game at Church Meadow on Saturday.

With three runs needed for victory from the last over, with two wickets remaining, Thame lost two wickets to lbw decisions in five balls to end the match in dismay.

The result led to their falling one place into the relegation zone.

Thame got off to a dream start when they reduced the visitors to 4-4 after putting them into bat.

Three of the first four Cove batsman were dismissed for ducks, while former Hampshire batsman Chris Benham was run out for three.

However, the pitch was good for batting and some middle- order stands allowed Cove to recover to 169-6 from 55 overs.

A break for rain led to Thame’s reply being reduced to 43 overs.

They lost three wickets with the score at 32, and at 53-4 seemed in trouble.

Manoj Parmar halted the slide with 48 before a further collapse saw the hosts slip to 136-8. Tailenders Sam Lachlan and Hiren Desai kept their cool in the crisis and took the side to the brink of victory before being dismissed in that heart-breaking final over.