Barnards Green cricket Club Match Reports.

21st June 2003
Old Elizabethans	Barnards Green Singles
vs Barnards Green 3^rd XI	vs Stourbridge
Barnards Green Saturday 3rds travelled to Old Elizabethans on Saturday and came away with a very creditable draw. Having won the toss and stuck the home team in to bat on what looked to be a good batting wicket, the O.E’s proved this to be the case as they were able to declare on 258 off 44 overs with Sprague the main contributor with 121, but ably supported by Clarke 29 and Brian Lewis 37. Debutant Neil Hacking finished with 3 for 53, Patrick Jelley 2 for 50 and Simon Clarke 2 for 57. The Green’s reply was steady with Keith Middleton 40 and Mike Genever 25 laying a solid foundation. Chasing such a large total is never easy particularly with a side boasting 9 players under the age of 20, but they stuck to their task well with Dave Knapper 22, Jon Lewis 22, Nick Rogers 32, Neil Hacking 16no and Patrick Jelley 17no all making solid contributions. At the end of play, the Green were just 21 runs short with two wickets in hand. This was an excellent performance by a very young side and certainly bodes well for the future of the club. Victoria vs Barnards green 1^st XI Barnards Green visited division 3 pace setters Victoria. On winning the toss Victoria skipper Mitchell asked the Green to bat. The Green were soon in trouble with Dan Flynn and Skipper Williams back in the pavilion early after both were caught playing expansive shots. Drinkwater and Smedley started to rebuild the innings before confusion lead to the run out of Drinkwater. Smedley and Clarke soon followed with the ball continuing to swing in the humid conditions. Doughty followed caught at cover and Tim Williams nicked a ball wide of off stump to the keeper to leave the Green deep in trouble. Rob Richards showed the necessary level of determination and combined with some very clean hitting managed to take the score over 100. Lee Hooper, Glendinning and Clive Churchill, on debut, managed to ensure the Green reached 125 and one bonus point. The Green closed on 125 all out, a well below par score. However the track was offering plenty to the bowlers and the Green were in no mood to surrender easily. After 1 over the Victoria reply was in disarray when the aggressive Tim Williams had Mitchell caught at slip from a short delivery and forced Cook to play on first ball, leaving Victoria at 0 for 2. Rob Richards soon accounted for Brookes and Amos and at 35 for 4 the game was well in the balance. Thompson and Thomas then recovered the situation with a determined partnership before Flynn and Doughty removed the pair to again send the game into a tense finale. With nerves beginning to shake G. Thomas and Rine found several boundaries to ease the tension. However Churchill returned to the attack and in quick succession took three wickets with some excellent fast and accurate bowling to leave Victoria three short of victory with 9 wickets down. Flynn bowled the last ball and in calm fashion Humphries stroked the winning runs. Barnards Green now find themselves some way off the leaders, with a lot of hard work ahead if they are to achieve promotion. They take 5 points from this game. Main Index	Barnards Green singles suffered their first defeat of the season when visitors Stourbridge inflicted a five wicket defeat. Skipper Freeman lost the toss, hardly surprising given the fact that he has not had an alcoholic drink for 8 days (When will the Theakstones return to the Clubhouse?) and was asked to make first use of the Newland strip. Freeman (12) and Genever faced an excellent opening burst from the bowlers but managed to tick the scoreboard over during the first ten overs until Freeman fell to a well judged catch on the long leg boundary. Chris Hill soon followed adjudged to have snicked one behind but Genever dug deep in an effort to post a large total, he and White added 40 runs until White holed out for 24. Another stand of 40 runs this time with Spencer saw the Green creep to 150 but the Stourbridge change bowlers were accurate and dangerous, Butt bowling 12 consecutive overs for 15 and taking the vital wicket of Spencer for 28. With the fielders backing their bowlers the Green lost two more wickets and was rocking at 147 for 6. Son Richard joined dad Chris Genever and Richard made batting look easy and brought dad out of his shell and Chris Genever suddenly peppered the boundary with a flurry of off drives recording consecutive 50s. In an attempt to up the rate still further he perished for a well made 64. The return of the opening bowlers soon mopped up the tail and only R Genever with 21 scoring useful runs. Shafoor (3 – 60) and Fanali (4 – 49) had prevented the Green from posting a score of 200 plus as they were all out for 191. The Stourbridge reply was a shot a ball as Taswir Ali Shah played shots all around the wicket dealing exclusively boundaries. Rich Brown however struck at regular intervals to give the Green a glimmer. Two great catches, one from Leech and a superb caught and bowled from Brown opened the door and when Taswir, after finally having to run, was bowled for 43 the door was ajar. Tawir Ali Shah smacked a quickfire 26 but he fell to Brown whose opening ten over burst had yielded four wickets for 47 runs. With Stourbridge 99 for 5 it was anyone’s match. Stourbridge skipper Meek dug deep with stoic defence whilst Fanali was more circumspect with his batting. Freeman rotated his bowlers as Stourbridge edged ever closer to the target. On numerous occasions the Green felt that they had achieved the desired for breakthrough only for the umpire to be unmoved by their appeals. Fanali now opened up with a succession of crushing legside shots to see the scoreboard moving rapidly again whist Meek was to content to nudge, nurdle and kick his side to victory. The end was swift when it came as Fanali smashed 20 runs from a Leech over to give his side a five wicket victory. Sat 21st June Barnards Green Cricket Club vs. Victoria and Blakeley (2nd XI) On another sunny afternoon at North End Lane Skipper Dick Brown was asked to bat on a track that looked like it might offer something to everyone. With a couple of changes to the side, the innings was opened with a mix of youth and experience in the form of Dez Clarke and Brian Hancock, as Dez Clarke looked for some well needed form, Hancock's excellent run of form came to an end with the score on 7. This brought James Curtis to the crease. Curtis immediately continued his good run of form as he supported Clarke who was patient but severe on the bad ball which came in every over. The young pair both fighting for first team cricket brought the hundred partnership up in the 21st over shortly before Clarke was caught pulling on 49. Curtis batted on and reached his 50 with good support at the other end coming from Goodman who scored a rapid 34, Curtis then fell for a magical 59. The green continued to amass another big total with runs coming from Sherliker who was very unlucky after one shot too many, and Brookes. With a cameo innings from Shamu at the end which included one big six, The Green closed on 248 for 6 after 50 overs. Victoria got off to a shaky start as Duncan Bell (2 for 31) sent Thomson back with the score on 2. Lidgate and Marley then put up some resistance and batted sensibly but with Brookes and Bell both bowling tightly The Green’s total started to look a long way off. This brought a couple of inspirational bowling changes from the skipper. Fletcher came on, and bowled a varied length for little runs but still no break through. Brown thought again and looked to Shamu and Sherlier for what was to be a hairy double change for the opposition. Immediately Shamu got Lidgate to an excellent diving catch by Potter at cover whilst at the other end Sherliker bowled Marley driving down the wrong line for 38. Sherlikar managed to bag three as he baffled the middle order with a good spell of spin bowling turning the ball both ways. At 120 for 5 there was still a lot of work to do by the home side, the bowling was regularly alternated with Bell and Fletcher both taking wickets in their second spells. Clarke was introduced for some curious leg Spin but with no luck. With only 13 overs to go and 3 wickets still required for victory Brown turned to the veteran Hancock who changed his line and length excellently to mop up the tail. In the 40th over Victoria and Blakey were dismissed 100 short of the required total which brought a well needed victory to the 2nd XI side.