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On the best weather day of the season so far the Green hosted fellow
promotion contenders Oldswinford at North End Lane.
Missing key bowlers Hoogstraten(groin) and Ford(holiday) captain Smedley
decided to bowl first on another beautiful Roy Mayo wicket and backed his
batting depth to chase whatever total was set.
This plan looked to be in trouble as Williams leaked early boundaries to
Hayward and Blunt and the Green struggled to control the early run rate. Sam
Spencer bowled economically with the new ball going for just 13 from his 5
overs but despite picking up the 1st wicket struggled to show the venom he
has displayed on occasions and was replaced by Clack. The youngster
struggled to control the swinging ball and quickly gave way to the ever
reliable Smedley.
His introduction brought the valuable wicket of Hayward for 51 adjudged LBW
playing an ungainly sweep shot. At this point the flow of runs was stemmed
somewhat by Smedley and his spin twin Drinkwater, bowling for the first time
in the 2007 season. Together they combined to take 9 wickets finishing with
5-65 and 4-56 respectively. Only the impressive Blunt with a superb 94
managed to score above 14 runs and thanks to excellent fielding particularly
from Harris who took a superb catch and Clack who picked up 2 catches the
Green managed to restrict the visitors to 211 on a day where 250 was
probably par.
After the interval the chase began with roles reversed as far as batting
styles go with the normally serene Rich Williams playing aggressor with a
number of powerfully struck drives and pulls and his partner Golder
unusually quiet.
The home side then suffered a double set back as first Golder and then
Drinkwater were dismissed by Sukup, the former for 13 and latter for a duck.
This brought the aggressive Tim Clarke to the crease; he combined with
Williams to force the pace and was particularly harsh on Fladgely who was
bludgeoned for 33 from his 4 overs.
When he was dismissed for 33 it was left to youngster Phil Harris to play a
mature innings in support of Williams. The Greens graceful opener perished
stumped off Brewer for a brilliant 86 and skipper Smedley joined Harris at
the crease with 60 needed to win.
The Green veteran was fortuitous early in his innings with a set of 4
overthrows getting him up and running and a lucky boundary through the
vacant slip region shortly after this. From there on in however he was
brutal and clinical as he raced to 44 not out and took his team to victor
with overs to spare. Harris finished with a patient 33 not out with the pick
of the bowlers Sukup with 2-57 from his 14 overs.
This Saturday the Green again play at home this time facing second placed
Lye in a possible title decider.
Oldswinford 211, Blunt 94, Hayward 51, Smedley 5-65, Drinkwater 4-56( 5
points)
BGCC 212, Williams Snr 86, Smedley 44 not out. (20 points)
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The green
travelled to local rivals Worcester with an under strength team due to first
team call-ups and various excuses of unavailability, it was still pleasing
that the club could field four teams without the services of at least 10
regular players.After winning the toss the green asked worcester to make
first use of an unusually dry pitch, Matt Brookes and Lewis Hooper opened
the bowling , opening batsmen for worcester Genever and Brown started
cautiously against the swing ball from Brookes and the flight from Hooper,
Brown had a let off when he was dropped in the gully before he was off the
mark, he and Chris Genever began to hit out striking numerous boundaries
before Genever was well caught by Rogers for 20,Dan Cure hit 12 before he
was caught by Spencer in the deep,Ohren hit a brief 17 then was third out
with the score on 90, matt Brookes then took two quick wickets bowling
Rimmell and the dangerous Cooke to leave Worcester 107 for 6 , Brookes then
took his third wicket bowling Corbett for 3, soon followed by the dismissal
of opener Brown for an important 65, this left the score on 146 for 8, there
was a ninth wicket stand of 28 between Ikalaq 21 and Knapton 8 this allowed
Worcester to reach 174 for 8 off their allotted overs,Lewis Hooper bowled 25
overs taking 5 for 89 and Matt Brookes bowled 23 overs finishing with 3 for
60.who knows what total they would of been bowled out for if the green had
taken their easy opportunities .
Mark
Hooper and the recalled veteran Rob Lewis open the innings and looked
in no trouble as they added 78 for the first wicket when Lewis was
deceived by a quicker ball from Knapton for a classy 36, this opened the
flood gates knapper was leg before for 2 ,Spencer struggled against his
nemesis Brian Clarke and was bowled for 0, Scullion soon followed with
out troubling the scorer,Lewis Hooper made 2,Matt Brookes 3 and Nic
Rogers scored 3, young Ashley Brewer was not out after showing the more
senior players how to play spin bowling, green were bowled out for 95 a
pathetic effort considering they were 78 for no wicket, credit must go
to Knapton who took 6 for 21 with a fine spell well backed up by the
wily Brian Clarke who finished with 4 for 24, the green were
comprehensively beaten by 79 runs and must improve in the last six games
of the season.
BGCC 1V's vs Old Elizabethans
Following a number of changes from the original team selected for this game,
Barnards Green 4ths found themselves with 5 players making their senior
debuts and the youngest players being 11 years old!
With the OEs captain winning the toss and decided to bat first on a green
but very firm looking Newland track, it seemed a good decision. This was
proved with OEs batting for 42 overs and declaring the inning with the score
on 257 for 5. With Wilkins and Chapman scoring very well made 65s, and an
experienced batting line up, the Green youngsters were always going to find
it difficult to make the breakthroughs. Openers Alley (2 for 80 from 20
overs) and Cullity (4 overs for 20), then support bowling from new boys Jack
Macintosh (4 overs for 19) and Michael Ellis (4 overs for 12), it was left
to Wheeler, Price and Ryan Scullion (another debutant and taking his first
senior wicket) to bowl the final overs and try to restrict the ever
increasing scoring rate of the OEs batting
With a score of 258 to win, and only one batter having past 50 in the Green
line up, the target looked very difficult to achieve, this proved to be the
case. Louis Loader (4) and Horne (11) opened the innings; they were quickly
followed by Perkins (8) and Scullion (2). This left Skipper Wheeler to try
and manipulate the strike and guide the tail through a further 40 overs for
either the win or loosing draw! Once Cullity (1) and Price (13) were back in
the pavilion, Alex McDonald played a very sensible and mature innings to bat
for 7 overs before taking a risky second run and being run out. Wheeler then
decided to have some fun and see how far he could hit the ball out of the
ground; having had some success, his luck ran out on 36 when he was caught
on the long off boundary off the edge of the bat!! Alley, Macintosh and
Ellis then had a further 30 overs to bat for the loosing draw, sadly they
fell 29 overs short! The Green were all out for 91 in 20 overs.
Although this was a very heavy defeat for the Green, a number of positives
can be taken from the game, including the senior debuts for junior players
who show great potential for the future and will be surely pushing for 1st
team places in the near future. Another positive is the great effort and
enthusiasm shown by all the Green players in the field, it was a very hot
day and with only 5 of the team having played more than 20 overs before the
youngster and some of the more mature players did really well not to let
their heads drop whilst fielding
Thanks go to the Match Day sponsors Three of a Kind hairdressers and
Alfrick Stores
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