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Stone vs BGCC 3rd
XI
Captain
Ratcliffe and half the Green regulars were on holiday or at the wedding of
James Curtis. Steve Beavan led the side, won the toss, and was not to blame
for the initial fiasco. The Singles bowled well with the new ball, but
fielded shoddily and for a long time dropped every possible chance. This was
risky behaviour on another warm day with short boundaries. The tone was set
at once when Hill had Morley dropped in the first over. Churchill then
yorked the overambitious Caulfield, but Batsford (48) began to pepper the
legside. Steve Metcalfe replaced Hill and had equally poor luck. Stone were
scoring at will as the fielders drooped and fumbled. Justin McMillan’s
legspin was a mixed bag, with expensive long hops but two more missed
catches. The Green were falling into serious trouble when Metcalfe suddenly
took three wickets in one over, including a sensational airborne catch by
Hill at short midwicket. The scoring was temporarily restrained, and skipper
Beavan chipped in with two wickets, but in the last ten overs Stone threw
the bat profitably, and the Singles faced a respectable target of 242. Most
of the fielders looked guilty or annoyed at tea, but youngsters Harry Pleass
and Jamie Tummey had made some fine stops and throws.
Hill, given
no respite and promoted to the No.1 anchor role, began with a surprise pull
for six, and added five crunching fours from the medium pacers. Paul Yorke
was unsure outside off stump and took half an hour to reach his usual
rhythm, but then regularly lofted the ball into a nearby paddock. This
makeshift pair posted a hundred at better than seven per over, before Hill
(30) kicked a wide legside ball onto his stumps, and Yorke (74) drove to
long off. Beavan made a useful brisk 21 then Nick
Rogers joined Keith Middleton for the crucial stand. Rogers (39) laid out
his familiar drives and swipes to leg; Stone’s bowlers scoffed but had no
good answer until he was plumb LBW. Middleton batted sensibly and steadily,
and ran particularly slowly, for an undefeated 35. Dave White drilled a fine
pair of boundaries to seal the win with 7 overs to spare.
Stone
241-7 (45 overs; Morley 61; Metcalfe 3-50); Barnards Green 244-4 (37.4 overs;
Yorke 74)
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BGCC IVs vs Worcester
On a muggy
overcast saturday afternoon Barnards Green 4ths lost the toss and were
invited to bat at Newland against Worcester 3rds. Stand in skipper Rob
Lewis opened the batting with the irrepressive Robin Longmore, whose
last efforts at opening some years ago had yielded 217no with some
degree of luck. On this occasion, lady luck was once again with him as
he clubbed some useful early bowling from a young Worcester attack for
76, before he miscued once too often and was caught at mid off. The
obsequious Lewis had played a patient anchor role in their partnership
of 114 and was somewhat miffed when the first ball he hit in the air was
well caught at point. The other Green batsmen struggled to push the
score along to the large total that had earlier threatened, until a
useful partnership between the inanimate Derek Goodman and the pragmatic
Dave Price in the latter overs pushed the total along to 250 for 6. The
youngsters in the Worcester attack had all bowled well, but were often
let down by some poor fielding, but the signs look good for the future
of their club.
After a sumptuous tea, the Green bowlers came out firing on all
cylinders and openers Ian Ali and Tom Banks found a good tight line and
length with Ali bagging early wickets aided by good catching from the
ageless Dick Brown who 'pouched' one in the slips and the bucket hands
of Jamie Longmore running in at mid on. However, it was the
introduction of Dave Price with his flight, guile and panache caused
obfuscation amongst the Worcester batsmen as he produced superb figures
of 5.2 overs 3 maidens 5 for 6, his best of the season, to rout the
opposition, including a superb diving catch from young Tom Banks to
dismiss the luckless Weston who had earlier bowled a good tight spell
for Worcester. With his wind resistant haircut, Jamie Longmore then
joined the party and soon helped to polish off the tail continuing his
fine season with the ball and Worcester were skittled out for 65, with
the Green picking up a full 24 points. Grateful thanks go to match day
sponsors Tansell's Garage of Worcester.
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BGCC 1st XI vs Kington
This first meeting played between these two Div.1 sides in the Crusader
W.C.L saw. Barnards Green entertain the top of the league, Kington at North
End Lane.The home captain, Chris Smedley win the toss and invite Kington to
bat first. The four man seam bowling attack of Tim Williams, Duncan Bell,
Rob McCard and Kev. Downs all bowled economically restricting Kingtons
opening batsmen to 70 runs off the first twenty overs, but without being
able to take a wicket. Skipper Chris Smedley decided on a change to spin
bringing himself on to partner Kev. Downs on debut, who proved to be very
economical, bowling 7 overs for 23 runs. Still without a wicket by the 27th
over Andy Ford came on to bowl and did the trick removing both openers I.
Massey (48) and B.Stebbings (50) in his first over. Inspired by this success
spin was continued with, bringing good, results as Kington found it
difficult to progress as they lost wickets regularly arriving at 215 for 6
by the forty-fifth over. Two overs later the score stood at 221 for 8 .
Chris and Andy having taken 4 wickets each. Unfortunately, this brought
together two experienced tail enders who plundered 56 runs off 18 balls, 33
coming from the last over, to see Kington’s innings close at 277 for 8.The
other major contributor to this total being D. Exall in at No 3 who top
scored with (58).Barnards Green’s reply was disrupted before it started due
to the fact that earlier during the Kington innings Rich. Williams, fielding
at slip took a heavy blow in the face from a nicked ball causing him to have
to leave the field to go to hospital for treatment. He had not returned in
time to open, surprise, surprise, so Chris Smedley opened with Kev. Golder,
who together produced a sound partnership of 66 before Chris was out caught
for (19) followed in the next over by Kev.for (35). Rob. McCardfor once did
not trouble the scorer, so the Green were suddenly three down for 70. Liam
Paddock produced another determined innings, batting for 90 minutes for 15
runs as wickets went down at the other end. Middle order batsmen, Adam Binks
(18), Phil Harris (13), Tim Williams (19) and Kev. Downs (17) all made
contributions but they were unable to keep the experienced bowling and
fielding at bay for long enough. Owen Price was the pick of the Kington
bowling attack, returning 4 for 43 off twenty overs, as the Green’s innings
ended on 177. Leaving Kington worthy winners.In conclusion :- Barnards
Green’s comparatively young , but potentially good side could not cope with
the skills, experience and general intensity of effort shown by Kington. We
should learn from this game to be a better team in the future.
Kington C. C
------------------- 24 points
Barnards Green
----------------- 6 points
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Kington vs BGCC 2nd XI
On a saturday when the club was 14 players short mostly due to James
(hicky bo) Curtis getting married, the seconds travelled to Kington with a
mixture of debutante youths and senior playing legends brought out of
retirement in the clubs hour of need.
Kington won the toss and decided to bat, Sam spencer bowled morgan and had
soummer stumped both for nought, opener george blasted a quick 50 making the
most of his good fortune, he was superbly caught by sam spencer running back
and taking the ball onehanded over his shoulder, all the kington batsmen
struck the ball cleanly and played in a positive manner, with 6 of their
players scoring 20 or above they were allout in the 45th over making
259.Debutante Sam Bradley took 4 wickets for 19 aided by 3 catches by Andy
Wheeler, green legend Dave Creese bowled 7 tidy overs quickly slotting back
into his old routine.
Tom Clack was soon out for 2,Wheeler and Lewis added 53 for the second
wicket before they both fell in quick succession scoring 24 and 20 , Lewis
Hooper was next out for 15 followed by Spencer (snr) 0 , Roger Thompson
together with Sam Spencer began to give the green side a glimmer of hope
taking the score from 91 for 5 onto 158 before Thompson was out for another
fine 59, spencer was joined by creese this pair added 30 until spencer was
out caught for 37, when Dave Creese perished for 17 it was left to shane
Thompson to bring up the 200 with a classy off drive and gain an extra
batting point , the greens innings ended on 209, Kington gained 24 points
and the Green
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