TOBY Sharpe passed a century of league wickets for Brondesbury as they eased past Acton to stay on course for a top-half finish. The Brondesbury seamer reached his ton by pinning opener Donovan Fyfe lbw as the home side were reduced to 5-3 and went on to

TOBY Sharpe passed a century of league wickets for Brondesbury as they eased past Acton to stay on course for a top-half finish.

The Brondesbury seamer reached his ton by pinning opener Donovan Fyfe lbw as the home side were reduced to 5-3 and went on to finish with 3-24 to wrap up a 66-run victory.

Byron Vermaak and captain John Fosbraey also collected three wickets apiece to dismiss Acton for 147 and seal their relegation from the Premier Division after just one season.

"It's quite easy to switch off at this stage of the season, but we have a knack of just getting ourselves up to a decent total, and we bowled and fielded as we needed to," said Fosbraey.

"It'd be quite easy to switch off at this stage of the season. All round it was a professional job and the difference this year is we've got match-winners, people who can make big scores and turn the game.

"With Teddington winning, I don't really think we can finish third, so we want to stay fourth. Hampstead are right behind us and we'd like to finish ahead of them for the first time in a while."

Brondesbury made a strong start after being put in to bat on a difficult track, with Chris Paget (66) and Tom Simpson (41) sharing an opening stand of 90 before the latter fell to Ali Ahmed (4-49).

Paget, who struck 10 fours and a six, and Mark Turner (8) took the score along to 126-1, but Ahmed and Hunt (3-48) then initiated a middle-order collapse.

Joe Moore and third-team graduate Tommy Ricketts, with 13 apiece, were the only batsmen to reach double figures until Sharpe (22) and Fosbraey (9 not out) guided Brondesbury to 213 with a last-wicket partnership of 30.

That proved more than enough, as Sharpe and Vermaak (3-43) quickly began to carve through the Acton line-up, with Ken Huckle the only batsman to hold firm.

Huckle remained unbeaten on 79 and, although Palash Joshi helped him to add 48 for the eighth wicket, the result was never in doubt as Fosbraey (3-50) wrapped up proceedings by dismissing last man Alex Manning in the 44th over.