Having to cope with a succession of mid-week “drop-outs” at all team levels,  Saturday was not the ideal time to take on league leaders Bromsgrove but  thanks  to the efforts of skipper Dick Brown and the loyalty of his team’s umpire and supporters the fourths were at least able to field 11 fit(ish) men.

Dick lost the toss and The Green found themselves batting. Missing openers Robbie (top all-rounder) Lewis, promoted to the dizzy heights of the twos and Chris Horne (injured),  Robin Longmore and Ewan Wilson opened with Dick’s assurances that this was a “250 pitch” ringing in their ears. Most assumed he meant 250 per side!

Wilson continued his run of bad luck, caught behind for a duck, whilst Longmore  made scoring look easy. He and the legend that is Julian Hall (30) took the total to 57 before his eyes lit up at a full-toss which mysteriously turned into a yorker and removed his middle stump for 44. Hall, in customary style pounced on anything loose whilst the diminutive figure of Jack Macintosh found the bounce difficult to cope with and he too failed to score as he lobbed the ball gently back to the bowler. Dick Brown (6) and Dr Christopher Hill, (obviously not fully  recovered from his long drive up the A38), both failed to time the ball to any degree and when Hill perished on just 11 and Mark Perkins became the third batsman to fail to trouble the scorer The Green found themselves 7 down with just 100 on the board. Dave Price and Steve Hunt went to the wicket with Dick knowing that the end was nigh and  revising his team’s target to “anything approaching 150”. Price (17) hit 4 boundaries before being well caught at mid-wicket going for a 5^th whilst Hunt also continued his good form with the bat and these two took the total to 134. John Reynolds (2) swapping his trigger finger for a bat, was unfortunate to mistime a drive to mid-off and became the eighth Green player to be caught out. With Ross (I do fielding my way) Wilson becoming the fourth recipient of the order of the duck The Green’s innings fizzled out on 138, in the process handing their hosts an extra 12 overs in which to chase down the total.

The premature conclusion of their innings meant that the visitors would have to suffer ten overs of fielding before a break for tea. Skipper Brown introduced a new theory to his bowling strategy, giving no bowler more than two overs at a time. This sought to confuse Bromsgrove’s batsmen – almost as much as it confused The Green. A lightning fast outfield and the exaggerated Bromgrove slope led to much leather chasing, with Jack Mack in particular travelling farther than Chris Hill’s car does in the average season as he retrieved the ball from the nearest hedge. The Green did manage to pick up three wickets due to the safe hands of Robin Longmore and Mark Perkins and the newly discovered rotational bowling theory of Dick Brown however  twelve extras and numerous misfields and dropped catches did not help their cause and Bromsgrove won without breaking sweat.

A game which:-

The Green did not turn up for,

The Green were pretty average in,
The Green will want to forget.

Also a Game in which Steve Hunt got injured collecting the tea money!

That just about sums up a bad day at the office.

 BGCC 1st XI vs Astwood Bank

Still missing overseas star Andre Russell who has swapped the maroon of West Indies A for the yellow, black and green of his native Jamaica’s T20 team Barnards Green put in another excellent team performance to come away with the lion’s share of the points against title rivals Astwood Bank. Visiting captain former Leicestershire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire player Steve Adshead continued home skipper Williams’ dreadful run with the coin as he called correctly and inserted the home side on a hard and dry pitch with a scorched and dry outfield setting up a potential runfest. Despite an early blitzkrieg from pinch hitter Wheeler (18) the Green started sedately with Rhodes and Golder building an early partnership against largely disciplined seam bowling from Underhill and Freeman. For the home side who lost Rhodes to a superb leg side stumping off Freeman it was tough work until Harris joined the inform Golder to forge a vital middle order partnership. When Golder and Harris departed in quick succession for 69 and 23 respectively it was left to the other form player in the order Chris Smedley to guide his tail to a competitive total. He was ably assisted by Ford who contributed a brisk 24 and Adam Binks who used up no time at in a rapid fire 20. Smedley finished unbeaten on 37 and the Green posted a competitive 237 with 3 wickets a piece for Underhill and Freeman. 

The home side knew that the Bank’s strength lay in chasing down targets and were also well aware that this charge could well be led by the inform Adshead who came into the game averaging well above 100 for the season. It was with delight therefore that skipper Williams tempted him into playing at an outswinger and the resulting edge was gleefully pouched by Binks behind the stumps. 

Pedley quickly followed bowled through the gate by an excellent in ducker from Harris which brought Sealey to the crease to join Robinson who has established himself at the crease with fluency to both seam and spin. Sealey perished caught behind on the stroke of drinks for 8 and overseas import Millar joined Robinson to rebuild the visitors reply. Millar found it tough going barely able to score more than a single off the controlled spin of Ford and Smedley. This pressure told as he was lured down the pitch by Rhodes and was stumped by a distance for 25. Robinson quickly followed outfoxed by a superb ripping off spinner from Ford for 58 to leave the visitors in trouble 5 down. Solid catching including a screamer from Tim Williams at mid off to dismiss Perkins and another stumping left the visitors 8 down at the close for 181 with Summers and Pete Alexander providing the late resistance making sure that by gaining the losing draw points the title race remains wide open.