A remarkable double-century opening stand between Hugo Darby and Tim Paine propelled Banbury back into the heart of the Division 1 title race on Saturday.

Set 263 for victory by visitors Burnham, Banbury triumphed by ten wickets thanks to superb batting from former Australian wicket-keeper Paine (152no) and Oxfordshire opener Darby (106no), who knocked off the runs with five overs to spare.

Banbury are now just three points behind leaders Henley and three ahead of High Wycombe with four games to go.

Choosing to bat first in dry conditions, Burnham only briefly wrested control from the Banbury attack.

Seamers Ashley Blanchard, Karl Penhale and Ollie Wright each picked up a wicket as the visitors slipped to 67-3.

Karan Kumar, with an aggressive 73 off 89 balls, which contained three sixes and eight fours, and Aftab Khan added 82 for the fourth wicket.

The spin of Luke Ryan and Richard West halted their momentum and only a lively unbeaten 41 from Rizwaz Nadeem enabled them to reach 262-9 from their 64-over allocation.

This seemed a reasonable target to set, but Darby and Paine made light work of the task.

The off-spin of Aftab Khan commanded respect, but the pair dominated the rest of the attack.

Paine’s unbeaten 152 came off 154 balls, with one six and 18 fours.

Darby reached his century just before victory achieved in the 51st over, making 106 not out from 152 balls with one six and nine fours.

Meanwhile, Pat Foster shrugged off a troublesome back injury to return figures of 5-18 and set Horspath up for an emphatic eight-wicket home win over Oxford.

The crushing victory eased Horspath's relegation fears, while at the same time plunged bottom club Oxford a step nearer to the drop.

After being out in, Oxford's fragile batting line-up was exposed.

It was the introduction to the attack of Foster, playing his first game for four weeks, that really did the damage, taking three wickets as they collapsed from 32-0 to 47-5, skipper Will Eason claiming the other two.

Jamil Faruq removed Oxford skipper Ian Crosby and Alex Davies with successive deliveries to make it 80-7, and to add to Oxford's plight, Mark Beer was unlucky to be given run out.

Freddie Simon (36) and Alex Morgan put on 58 for the ninth wicket before Foster returned to trap Simon lbw, and bowl new wicket-keeper Phil Warson, as Oxford were all out for 164.

Horspath eased home by eight wickets thanks to opener Robbie Eason and Adam Mould's maiden league half-century in an unbroken stand of 88.

Eason was unbeaten on 69, clinching victory at 166-2 with a straight six. Mould's 55 not out came off 92 deliveries.