The weather may have put a cart and horses through most of the local cricket programme so far this season, but Paultons defied the rains a third time to come away from their visit to Hambledon with a result - and a positive one at that.

Having won the toss, Hambledon elected to field and quickly dismissed Touqeer Iqbal and Andy Darnton to leave Paultons 13 for 3.

John Robinson was then joined by Aussie Jamie Cooper, and they took the score to 44 before Robinson fell. Colin James added another 41 with Cooper, but the real substance to the innings came from a vital 73-run partnership between Cooper and Tony Richman. That inched the visitors from 85 for 4 to within sight of a respectable total.

Hambledon contributed to their own downfall by failing to hold their catches, and although the last six wickets fell quickly, Paultons reached an all-out total of 175.

Mackie Hobson (4-37) and Matthew Hoggett (3-30) enjoyed good days with the ball, but it was the stand between Cooper (52) and Richman (34) that proved cricual.

Following a brief showery interlude, Hambledon were set an adjusted target of 162 from 46 overs.

However, the home team failed to bat well, a number of their batsmen getting out to poor shots. After the early loss of Carroll, caught by John Robinson off Pete Lamb, James Scutt (16) and Chakrabarti (18) took the score on to 45 for 1.

But once Scutt - who made a century the previous week - and Chakrabarti perished, both to Lamb, Hambledon tumbled to 53 for 4.

Hoggett and Le Clerq provided further resistance with 16 and 12 respectively. But both fell to catches off of Touqeer, and from 90 for 5 the last five wickets went down for just 14 runs. Touqeer finished with 3 for 15, while Lamb - whose four victims were the top four in the order - went for just 31 in a 12-over spell.