Greenwood Park suffered their first loss in over ten months as they fell to an eight-wicket defeat to Potten End.

Park posted a disappointing 152-10 in 42.2 overs but despite the wide sounding margin of victory Greenwood made a valiant attempt with the ball – as their opposition only managed to knock off the winning runs with just 2.4 overs to spare.

It was a frustrating loss for the home side, having started the season with back-to-back victories, and it was an early wake up call for Park that if they are going to challenge for the title, their batting will need to improve.

Having won the toss, Captain Chris Kent elected to bat and his side got off to a steady start before Jimmy Otter was bowled for eight.

Kent himself then came and went for 10 and it wasn’t long after that opener Ed Gray departed for 27.

A solid partnership of 46 from Rakib Ali and Numan Butt (19) provided some sort of respectability for Park and once again it was the former delivering for his team.

Ali demonstrated his relentless run scoring ability as he reached yet another 50 but when he was out caught for 62 the scoring contributions stopped.

In fact, there were seven single figure scores as Greenwood ended up with a total well below par.

In response Potten End got off to a flying start and were 31-0 off just six overs before Park’s bowlers started to gain control.

Ajmal Hussain and Shafaat Hussain were exceptional with the ball and, when bowling in tandem, the visitors could only manage five runs in eight overs.

The pair finished with magnificent figures of 1-17 and 0-13 respectively from their ten overs, which gave their side a glimmer of hope.

Arslan Khan continued the good work, taking one wicket for 29 from his ten, but there were never enough runs on the board as Potten End overtook their divisional rivals.

Next week Park travel to Langleybury as they look to get back to winning ways.