Barnards Green cricket Club Match Reports.

24^th May 2003

Birlingham vs Barnards Green 1^st XI Barnards Green visited Birlingham in this Worcester League Division 3 match. Once again rain played a part, with showers and drizzle further affecting an already wet pitch. Birlingham won the toss and put the Green into bat. Rich Williams was straight into his stride, being particularly quick onto anything short, with a flurry of early boundaries. Martin Downes was as reliable as ever, getting significant bounce and movement off the wet pitch. Williams and Jez Clarke put on 49 before the former was smartly caught for 36. Flynn and Tim Clarke soon followed which bought Jez Clarke and Chris Smedley together. At 104 for 3 after 34 overs the Green were well placed for a sizeable total on a difficult wicket. However the rain became too heavy and an early tea was taken. After tea, the rain ceased and a 40 over game was agreed. Jez Clarke went almost immediately for a stubborn 36 and Paul Drinkwater followed soon after. Rob Richards hit some clean blows before holing out in the deep. This left Smedley (35no) to sensibly see the final overs through and take the Green to 144 for 6 off 40 overs. The Green adding 40 in the final 6 overs. Birlingham started their reply well with 40 coming off the first 10 overs. The turning point was a stunning piece of inspirational fielding by Dan Flynn. The dangerous Andy Howorth flicked the ball away hard on the leg side. Flynn dived full length at square leg and held the ball one handed in mid air. Spares soon followed to Doughty after a sharp stumping from Glendinning. Drake and Jenkins battled hard to get Brilingham back into the game, but never found it easy against the extremely accurate Doughty and Flynn. They both fell to Doughty in quick succession to catches from T. Clarke and Smedley. When Bell brilliantly caught Styles on the boundary and Doughty bowled Lawton, the Green sniffed victory. Williams then returned to clean bowl Haynes and the excitement rose. However with overs running out the final Birlingham pair hung on for the draw. Doughty bowled a superb spell of medium pace and was well rewarded with figures of 5 for 34 off 17 overs. All the bowlers were well backed by a brilliant fielding display. An excellent game played in a very competitive atmosphere rewarded the Green with 12 points. Credit should go to both teams for not allowing the weather to ruin a well fought game. The Green will take pride from the performance but will still be looking for their first win of the rain hit season when they entertain Dominies & Guild at North End Lane. Main Index

Stourbridge vs Barnards Green 3^rd XI Saturday saw Barnards Green 3rds travel to Stourbridge 4ths for an entertaining game in the grounds of Mary Stevens Park.  Through no fault of the opposition, two of their teams had been put down to play at home on the same day and so a park pitch was the only alternative, unfortunately, the park keeper forgot and the changing facilities ended up under a large horse chestnut tree!  With rain delaying the start and the captains having difficulty choosing which bit of the square had been cut, it was to the relief of skipper Robin Longmore that he won the toss and had no hesitation in inserting the home team.  The rain had caused the wicket to play slow but made the run ups slippy, but 13 year old Liam Paddock had no problems as he bowled an excellent line and length whilst swinging the ball yards.  His 1 for 13 off 8 overs was scant reward, but he helped to frustrate the batsman and Patrick Jelley 3 for 37 and Rob Lewis 2 for 21 including an excellent stumping by Nick Rogers, were two of the bowlers who benefited.  Emily Price bowled a tidy line to keep the runs down and Rob Tyler bowled his best spell for the Green picking up 3 for 19 along with an excellent catch off a steepling skier.  With good ground fielding, particularly from Jonathon Lewis, the Green kept Stourbridge to 110 in their 42 overs. After an excellent tea alfresco, the Green set about their target, but opener Lee Dyment got somewhat bogged down and Cyril Dean having shown graet technique in the difficult conditions found him at the wrong end of the umpires finger when the umpires son appealed for an LBW decision.  This brought Paddock to the wicket and he found the bounce a little unnerving as the wicket dried out.  When Dyment was bowled for a patient 16, Keith Middleton took the bowling to task and soon took his score to 29 before mis timing a pull.  This brought Jonathon Lewis to the wicket and he showed great maturity to see the Green home along with Liam Paddock (23no) who hit the winning runs to take the Green to victory by 7 wkts and give them 20 points.  Barnards Green Singles vs Brintons Another failed attempt to start the season saw this match abandoned after twenty overs following a heavy showers that had rivers running down the Newland square. The Green skipper lost the toss and was asked to bat on a soft strip. With the conditions ideal for bowling the Brintons openers had Freeman and Genever very watchful as the ball swung prodigiously and with plenty of seam movement laying bat to ball was not seen very often. With the first runs not coming until the seventh over when Freeman edged one through the slips, Genever struggled to find any fluency and edged to the keeper and Freeman kept the slip cordon on their toes with more streaky runs to third man. Waldron (1 – 14 off 8 overs) was finally rewarded when Freeman (15) saw his flashing drive brilliantly caught at second slip. Beavon came and went as Bryant took two wickets for 20 but Darren Tolley and Dave White started to gain the upper hand as the bowlers tired. White (8 no) hit two screaming cover drives whilst Tolley (19 no) played shots all over the field. The shower arrived and stayed for twenty minutes leaving the ground covered in water. Both captains agreed after an early tea that there was no prospect of further play. The Barnards Green singles have still yet to play a full match during the 2003 season.