SAM Nicholls carried his bat with a maiden Cotswold Hills Cricket League ton to set up a comfortable victory for Chipping Campden.

The town team, level on points at the top of Division Two with Overbury, romped home by 129 runs at Temple Grafton for their third consecutive win.

Home skipper Tom Benjamin inserted Campden on a typically good Grafton wicket and they eventually scored 243-8.

James Lindner and Nicholls saw off the new ball with a 50-run partnership in 12 overs.

The Holt brothers claimed Lindner (23) followed by Guy Nicholls and Jack Groves for ducks.

Campden were on 81-3 off 24 overs before Nicholls dramatically increased his strike rate, ending on 129 not out with 10 fours and nine sixes.

He was well supported by Dan Moore (33) and Ian Harrison (28), though Jon Holt only conceded 22 runs from his 10 miserly overs.

In reply, Grafton got off to a good start with lusty blows from Benjamin and Simon Kirk, but Groves intervened with 4-24 from 10 overs.

Younger brother Sam Groves’ pace had the experienced Kirk troubled and he claimed the valuable wicket, conceding only 13 runs in six overs.

Moore polished off the long tail with 3-16 as the last seven batsmen only contributed nine runs in Grafton’s 114 all out.