Barnards Green cricket Club Match Reports.

June 4th 2005
BGCC 3rds vs Brintons	BGCC 2^nd XI vs Coombs Wood
The Green 3rds entertained a strong Brintons team on a cool and showery afternoon on an excellent track at Newland.  Opting to bat first, Brintons were a shade fortunate to have opener Maiden still at the wicket after the first over, after Phil Harris found the outside edge to be well taken by keeper Bob Rogers, but the batsman remained at the creese.  The Brintons openers then took the score past the 60 mark, before Simon Cooke took an excellent low catch to remove Maiden for 39 off Rob Tyler. Parker (24) soon latched on to anything short regularly finding the unprotected boundaries, before being bowled by Jamie Longmore.  Jones grafted away at the other end, before finally being well caught by Dave Bayliss and providing just rewards for Phil Harris, who bowled far better than his figures suggested.  Dave Price tempted I. Waldron down the track and Rogers whipped off the bails for a stumping and Harris produced a top drawer ball to bowl Reece.  Brintons finished on 210, somewhat more than they should have had, but for some inept fielding from certain fielders.  In reply, the Green looked comfortable early on with Simon Cooke and the inform Rob Tyler having few problems and keeping the scoreboard ticking over, however both succumbed to short deliveries outside offstump only to be caught behind.  Dick Brown failed to trouble the scorers, being undone by a yorker and the runs soon dried up as the Green failed to punish the bad balls and turned twos into singles.  Nick Rogers skied one and Dave Bayliss having played some nice drives, returned a simple catch to N.Waldron to depart for 13.  Bob Rogers then sought to increase the run rate, but was run out in the process and next ball Rob Lewis was bowled for  a patient 41.  Phil Harris and Dave Price soon departed and at 103 for 9, the game looked all but over with Jamie Longmore and Tom Clack at the creese.  However, these two showed how it should be done and Longmore crashed the ball to all parts of the ground for an excellent 38 being well supported by Clack, who finished on 7no after Longmore was caught going for another six.  Brintons finished with 24 points, the Green with 6 points.  Many thanks to match day sponsor Stephen Watkins School of Pianoforte. Coombs Wood vs BGCC 1^st XI on Saturday bgcc 1st 11 travelled to fellow newly-promoted coombs wood in the wcl 2nd division for what was expected to be a close and tough fought game. again green skipper chris smedley lost the toss and as was expected asked to bat first.after the early loss of rich williams due to mix up and the consequential run out. dan flynn(80) and gary lewis(63) set about coomb woods bowling to such an extent that after 11 overs 4 bowlers had already been used and 7 men were already fielding on the boundary.the partnership was finally broken in the 27th over with the total at 144.there then followed small partnerships in the middle order that failed to capitalise on their promising starts and again at 226 for 6 in the 44th over all the early work might have been wasted.tim clarke (48)  was then joined by gilly binks (36 not out) in a partnership of 67 that destroyed the coombs woods bowling and flagging spirits with an array of shots off sublime quality.throughout smith bowled well if a little negatively for the home side with 4 for 106 off 20 overs of off spin bowled from around the wicket.   coombs woods reply got off to a bad start with harold harrison (9-3-10-2) finally finding some form and swing and, aided by a run out, were reduced to 39 for 3. the dour saundry (49 off 49 overs) was then joined by the spirited griffiths (64) who took the score to 125 for 3 after 25 overs, exactly the same total as bgcc at the same stage but having lost 2 more wickets.coombs wood thought process and game plan then became very confusing as they never attempted to go for the 75 % of the greens total to get the losing draw points or even 6 off the last over to get their final batting point. the green did not help themselves by dropping 4 catches of varying degrees of difficulty  and failing to capitalise on oppurtunities created by the bowlers. in the end neither team could be happy with the outcome of this game except saundry who fell one run short of dogged half century. things should be a lot livelier this weekend as the green take on local rivals the malvern ramblers at north end lane	Barnardsgreen seconds entertained Coombswood in the WCL  saturday league, the visitors won the toss and asked the home side to take first use on a good batting wicket. Coombswoods policy of bowling very expierienced bowlers who took the pace off the ball had the homeside struggling to time the ball,first to go was Jason Brewer who failed to go through with his shot and was caught at cover,Mark Hooper looked in fine form until he also miss timed a slower ball by Banks.Liam Paddock was just begining to get into his stride when for the second time this season the bowler deflected a drive onto the stumps running out the unfortuate Paddock.Spencer joined the patient Jon Lewis,he took a liking to the bowling but after hitting two sixes and three fours he also perished to fine catch in the outfield.Lewis Hooper was caught behind first ball and the green were in trouble at 102 for 5 and twenty overs still remaining.Jon Lewis was eventuatley out trying to up the scoring rate after a patient 39.It was left to Matt Brookes 22no to guide the green to reasonable total with the aid of Scullion 10 and Sam Spencer 10.Allout for 172 in the 49th over.John Banks bowled 19 overs taking 5 for 40,and R.Turner also bowled 19 overs taking 1 for 69 although they did a good job for thier side ,the useful teenagers in coombswood side did not look impressed with spending the afternoon in the field watching players old enough to be in the fossils hog all the bowling. The green took to the field knowing they were probably 30 runs short. All seven bowlers used by the green bowled well backed up by spirited fielding it took coombswood 49 overs to reach thier target.Opening bowlers Duncan Bell and Sam Spencer bowled with pace and were unlucky to only pickup a wicket apiece Scullion and Lewis Hooper forced many false shots but were unlucky not to take wickets. In the end Coombswood reached their target with the loss of 4 wickets in the 49th over with J.Cannon making 46 and M.Colwell 59. The greens young side will have to learn how to produce a defendable total so that their   promising bowling attack stand a chance of gaining points. Many thanks go to the matchday sponsors MALVERN DEISEL SERVICES.