STOKE Gabriel’s push to bring A Division cricket to the club for the first time continued with a three-wicket win at Clyst St George.

Clyst, who are fighting to avoid a second successive relegation, were held to a 38-over total of 194 for eight.

Stoke flopped over the line with seven balls to go after a battle with the Clyst bowling attack.

In what is increasingly looking like a three-horse race for two promotion places, Barton (185ps) top the table ahead of Clyst (180) and Cullompton (175).

Chris Ferro (22) and Morgan Potgieter (21) helped Clyst towards 66 for one before Jack Tolley took them out one after the other.

Tolley (5-30) kept the pressure on the middle order as Clyst laboured to 92 for six. His five-wicket haul helped reduce the home side to 118 for seven.

Nathan Wells (39) and Ewan Cragg turned things round for Clyst with a stand of 60 for the eighth wicket.

Jake Robinson, the Stoke captain, was largely content with his side’s performance in the field.

“Tolley’s ‘golden arm’ went well in the middle and I thought we bowled okay in difficult conditions,” said Robinson.

“Having said that we probably let it get away from us a bit at the end of the first innings.”

Stoke’s chase took a scenic route from 48 for none to 89 for four, then wobbled from 133 for four to 149 for seven.

Abhishek Anand (23), Justin Pringle (41) and Tolley (20) had runs on the board for Stoke around wicket-taking bursts from Wells (3-42) and Bertie Creer (2-28).

Mike Smith stuck around to make an unbeaten 32 and pulled Isaac Withington (10no) along with him during an unbroken stand of 46 that won the game.

Said Robinson: “We can never seem to make a chase easy, but it's great we've got so much depth in our batting.”