23rd June 2012 - Match Reports.

Yet again captain Tim Williams lost the toss and BGCC were unsurprisingly asked to bat first. Long-standing opening partners Adam Dovey and Mark Hooper started the innings facing experienced bowlers Shahid Ahmed and Mohammed Adeel. They kept it tight bowling 6 maidens in the first 8 overs. Ahmed took the first wicket dismissing Dovey bowled for 0. Elliott Hennessy joined Hooper and they took the total to 34 before he too was bowled by Ahmed. With both opening bowlers seemingly struggling with injury Eastnor captain Clive Chandhani was forced to use a variety of bowlers. Amjad Mehmood Butt replaced Adeel and runs were not easy to come by with the 50 coming up in the 21 over.

Butt made the next breakthrough bowling Hooper for a creditable 21. Phil Harris came in at 5 with the score on 56 for 3 after 24 overs. Jabran Khalid joined the attack and his well measured leg spin caused some problems. However the partnership of Harris and Rurawhe put on 48 in 14 overs with the other bowlers taking the brunt of the scoring. Harris was quickly into rhythm with his first four scoring shots being 3 fours and a six. With this quickening run rate BGCC reached 100 in the 34 over. Khalid trapped Rurawhe lbw for a valuable 34. Kevin Golder joined Harris and played a useful role in supporting him as he built his innings; Harris reached his 50 off 68 balls then began to really accelerate. Golder fell for 12 - caught by Faisel Khalid off Atiq Ur-Rehman ending the partnership of 81 and bringing Tom Poole to the crease for his first game of the season.

Harris's batting was impressive and he was hitting the ball so cleanly, J Khalid, Josh Emery and Butt were all on the end of straight sixes – the latter going for 3 in one over! Poole joined in; hitting one six before being clean bowled by Ur-Rehman. BGCC were then 198 for 6 with 3 overs remaining – Harris 93 not out. Jon Dovey came in at 8 with his main role to give Harris the strike. The 54 over brought both the 200 for BGCC and Harris's century. Harris was finally dismissed caught by Ahmed in the deep off Ur-Rehman for a brilliant 103 off 94 balls, which included 8 fours and 7 sixes. Ashlea Brewer came in for the final 3 balls and the score moved onto 214 for 7 off the allotted 55 overs.

Eastnor's innings started poorly with Shahid Ahmed smartly caught behind by Brewer off Harris in the 3 over for 0 with the score on 4. This brought Faisel Khalid in to join his brother Jabran. This partnership was soon ended when they took a misjudged quick single and smart fielding from Hennessy at midwicket meant Jabran Khalid was run out for 4. Atiq Ur-Rehman came in at four and he too was caught by Brewer off Harris for 0 leaving Eastnor 12 for 3 off 7 overs.

Clive Chandhani came to the crease with a captain's innings needed. Harris and Tom Poole kept it tight and Eastnor found scoring difficult and progress slow. Jon Dovey relieved Poole and made an impact straight away clean-bowling F Khalid for 13 in his first over. Josh Emery came in at six and looked to be aggressive opening his account with a 6. Chandhani fell for 15 caught by Smedley at mid-on off Harris before Emery was well caught by Rurawhe on the long-on boundary for 10. Eastnor were now struggling on 52 for 6 with 26 overs to bat through. This quickly became 64 for 8 as Smedley claimed his second and third wickets. Mohammad Adeel was caught behind for 0 and Rurawhe took an outstanding catch in the deep to dismiss Khurram Sayed for 8.

Harris topped off a brilliant performance with a fine pick up and throw to run out Sharafat Hussain for 5 before returning to the attack to take his third wicket; dismissing keeper Arshad Hussain for his team's top score of 18. Eastnor were bowled out for 85 in the 43 over. BGCC won by 129 runs and claimed another full 24 points to Eastnor's 3. This allowed them to leapfrog over Eastnor to go second in the league – trailing next week's opponents Brewood by just 4 points.