24th June 2006 - Match reports.
Bromyard vs Barnards Green 1st XI Bromyard won the toss and put Barnards Green in to bat on a firm dry wicket under clear sky’s offering good visibility. Rich. Williams and Kev. Golder opened steadily, taking the score to 47 by the ninth over, when Rich. Williams got an unplayable ball from the Bromyard’s overseas player Z. Saeed and was out bowled for 17. The second wicket fell in the twelfth  over to the first change bowler P. Wittenbury’s first delivery. This brought P. Drinkwater in to join Kev. Golder, playing well on 22 and together they took  the score on to 71 by the seventeenth over, when Kev. fell caught  behind off Z. Saeed for a valuable 33. Two further wickets went relatively cheaply to P. Wittenbury’s accurate medium pace, before the Greens later order batsmen  Paul Drinkwater-29, Adam Binks-34, Captain Chris Smedley-30 not out  and Phil. Harris –34 not out, saw the fifty over innings total to a well earned 244 for 7 which seamed a reasonably competitive score at the tea break    In reply Bromyard’s opening pair A. Bullock and O. Bailey started their innings in a positive frame of mind against Barnards Green’s opening pace attack of Rob. McCard  and  Duncan Bell. The contest seemed fairly evenly balanced with the scoring rate matching the rate achieved in the first innings ie.46 by over nine.  In the eleventh over the bowling attack switched to spin. With this change the balance changed dramatically in favour of the batsmen who surged ahead, making 128 for 0 by the twentieth  over. Barnard Green’s bowler’s tried everything they could, but to no avail as the opening partnership sailed on quickly first to 165 runs by the twenty-fifth over ,then 220 by the thirtieth. They remained together, winning the match by passing the target set in the thirty-fourth over.  Bailey scoring 143 not out and Bullock in the supporting roll finishing on 81 not out                              Bromyard  -- 20 Points for the win                             B. G. C. C. -- 4 batting bonus points	Barnards Green 2nd XI vs Bromyard On winning the toss Bromyard decided to make first use of another fine batting wicket, they were quickly into their stride with openers Willliams and Benbow adding 44 quick runs before williams was first out for 15, this brought D.Scorer to the wicket, their partnership produced 98 runs in 15 overs before Tom Clack bowled Scorer for 54.The greens normally tight bowling pair of Sam Spencer and Lewis Hooper struggled to keep the bromyard batsmen in check.It was left to the experienced Roger Thompson and Phil Spencer to try and restrict the the bromyard pair of Benbow and Thomas who were in full flow and a total of 400 was not out of the question. Spencer had Benbow well caught by Hooper for 75 and James Scullion had Thomas caught for a well struck 92, in the end the green battled back and managed to restrict Bromyard to 319 for 8 off their allotted 50 overs, Spencer finishing with 3 for 49 off 10 overs,Scullion 3 for 40 off his six overs , and Tom Clack the remarkable figures in the context of the game of 1 for 14 in 5 overs.The green needed a solid start if they were to have any chance of winning the game, but both openers Brewer and Lewis were out with the score on 7, Paddock soon followed for 9, Roger Thompson battled hard for 27, skipper Spencer struck 28 and glendenning stroked 25, apart from those scores the greens youthful side was bowled out for 137 in the 26th over. Dave Scorer was the pick of the bromyard bowlers ,his fine spell of pace bowling earned him 6 for 64 and proved to be to good for the home team.The green were out played in all departments by a very strong bromyard side, Bromyard gained 24 points and the Green 4. MATCH SPONSOR FOR THE GAME WAS "JULIAN HALL GARDEN SERVICES"
Barnards Green 3rd XI vs Belbroughton Belbroughton hung on for the draw as Barnards Green thirds were unable to prise out the last two wickets despite having 15 overs to do so. On a track that had livened up due to overnight rain Belbroughton inserted the Green who set about posting a big total. Doughty and Yorke found the short ball to their liking and were peppering the boundaries until Yorke played all around a straight one for 13, Ratcliffe then started to find the boards with controlled aggression as the Green raced to 68 off 13 overs. Belbroughton changed the bowling to great effect, Edwards and Hadley pitched the ball on a length and suddenly the ball was misbehaving with variable bounce and exaggerated movement and Ratcliffe fell to a catch behind for 36. The Green were becalmed, as Hill went off to explore the flora and fauna of Worcestershire, and the normally free scoring Doughty was harshly judged leg before to one that bruised his stomach leaving Freeman and Curtis to consolidate the total. The pair were circumspect in their approach but the runs had dried to a trickle as Edwards 12 overs 1 for 20 and Hadley 12 overs for 31 put the brakes on. On trying to up the rate Curtis struck a mighty six but in attempting to repeat the shot was stumped for 29. Freeman soon followed for 19. As the track eased some lusty hitting from Hooper 21 and Metcalfe 25 no saw the necessary quick runs whilst White, who “thought the track was still spiteful, just that he had made it look easy” with 13 no saw 80 runs come off the final seven overs. Aided by 52 extras the Green posted a challenging 226. Belbroughton were then subjected to a miserly masterclass from Chris Hill, any hopes of victory were quickly dashed as the veteran used the helpful pitch with a series of fine deliveries that ripped out the top order. Hill’s twelve overs yielded 4 wickets for only 7 runs with 9 maidens. When Clarke took 2 wickets in an over and Doughty snaffled another Belbroughton were 65 for 8 in the thirtieth over. With a mixture of defence and attack Belbroughton thwarted the array of close fielders. Taylor made the most of the open spaces to score runs and Bibby was content to nudge and nurdle his side towards safety. Try as they might the Green were unable to achieve the breakthrough, Taylor bludgeoned 63 run and with Bibby 11 not out Belbroughton had secured an improbable draw. All of Hill’s early efforts saw the Green take 15 points in the winning draw.	Vine vs Barnards Green 4th XI