TWO Gloucestershire County Cricket League games involving Forest sides were decided by a handful of runs.

In Division Three, Cinderford St John held off the challenge of Gloucester A.I.W. Sports by three runs.

It was even tighter at Parkend where the home side went down by a single run in their Division Five match with Minchinhampton.

Cinderford won the toss and elected to bat, setting a win target of 140.

Opener Simon Gwynne was caught on 23 and Ed Ruck was bowled for three as Cinderford were reduced to 41-2.

The key partnership was between Mark House and Jonathan Bowdler.

Wicketkeeper Bowdler was Cinderford’s top scorer who was stumped two short of his half century.

House contributed 27 to the total before he was caught with another nine coming from Jordan Warren.

Steve Skelton and Daniel Kibble saw out the innings, contributing nine and six respectively.

Defending the total, Craig Roberts took three wickets with two each for Mark Roberts, Mark House and Simon Gwynne and one for Jordan Warren.

Craig Roberts engineered the dismissal of A.I.W’s top scorer with Ed Ruck taking the catch which sent Muhammed Jabbar back to the pavilion for 35.

Jordan Warren took the catch for Roberts’ second wicket, Shafiqullah Maroofkhel going for 11.

His final wicket was that of tail-ender Ubaid Saleh who was caught by Bowdler for a duck.

Mark Roberts bowled captain Uzair Salehbhai for seven and then took the catch to dismiss the other opener Abdullah Bjham for six off Mark House.

His other wicket was Mannan Fayyaz who was caught by Warren for 11.

House also accounted for A.I.W’s second highest scorer Ali Khalid who was bowled on 14.

Warren bowled Ahmedi Saleh for eight and the other two wicket went to Simon Gwynne.

He had Shockat Veshmia leg before on 11 and Libas Uriakhiel went to a catch by Bowdler as the visitors were stopped at 136 all out after 34.5 overs.

Robbie Moore and Mark Moodie each took two wickets as Minchinhampton finished their 40 overs at 179-7.

Scott Ayres, Robbie Jones and Sam Haddock each took a wicket with Ayres and Andy Taylor also holding onto catches.

After his work with the ball, Moodie was also top scorer with the bat, hitting four fours in an innings of 30 before he was bowled.

Josh Middlecote hit a six and four fours for 26 before he went to a catch.

Sam Haddock hit a six in his 23 before he was run out as Parkend looked for vital runs.

Arran Parsons hit 17 and there was 16 for Andy Taylor but eventually the home side came up agonisingly short on 178 all out in the final over.

His final wicket was tail-ender who was caught by Jonahtan Bowdler