A BIG century from Oxfordshire’s Hugo Darby dominated the first day of their Unicorns Counties Championship match against Herefordshire at Great & Little Tew yesterday.

The opener hammered 166 with two sixes and 21 fours as Oxon, still seeking their first victory of the season, made 338 all out after choosing to bat first in the Western Division clash.

So dominant was Darby that when Oxon were reduced to 123-4, he had scored 82 of the runs.

Darby, who reached his century off 129 balls, then shared a fifth-wicket stand of 105 with Joe White, who made 42 off 96 deliveries before becoming one of five victims for seamer Dan Conway.

Chad Keegan came in to blast 71 off 59 balls with three sixes and nine fours in a sixth-wicket stand of 85, before Darby’s epic 241-ball innings came to end, caught at deep mid-wicket.

Oxon’s last five wickets fell for 35 runs as they sought quick runs and were bowled out in 89.4 overs.

Herefordshire encountered few problems in batting-friendly conditions.

By the close, they had reached 72-0 from 25 overs, despite Oxon having used six bowlers.

The home county were without skipper Luke Ryan, who suffered an injury bowling for Banbury the previous day.

He pulled out after failing a fitness test in the morning, his place being taken by Joe Thomas, from the host club, while Jonny Cater led the side.