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Bewdley CC 1st XI vs Barnards Green CC 1st XI
Barnards Green breathed a heavy sigh of relief as local rivals Colwall did
the North End Lane outfit a massive favour by beating Worcester and keeping
the top of the table deficit in single figures.
The Green had a
seriously off colour day as Bewdley had the best of a winning draw that
lifts them 9 points above the drop zone and leaves the Green 3 points adrift
of leaders Worcester.
Tim Williams had high
hopes as he won his first toss in 8 attempts; unfortunately despite the
early wickets of Wilkinson and Beard to Ford and Harris( who bowled an
excellent opening spell) home skipper Coombes and Gareth Lewis put together
a brutal partnership with Coombes scoring a quick fire 50 and Lewis
supported ably by Bayliss(34) and Jones(15) contributing an entertaining
94no.
The home sides total of
244 was more than impressive and the visitors were left to rue at least a
half dozen dropped catches and an all-round below par fielding effort.
Hooper and Rhodes got
the visitors off to another solid reply both reaching the mid twenties
however neither managed to turn promising starts into meaningful
contributions and it was left to the experienced Golder and recent middle
order mainstay Harris to try and both rebuild the innings and accelerate the
runrate.
Golder looked fluent at
the crease scoring boundaries off both seam and spin and soon reached a well
made 50. Unfortunately the dual spin attack of Coombes and Mills delivered a
double blow as Harris(33) and Golder(71) fell in quick succession to leave
the home side tasting a 48 point haul against the Green.
Despite Mills
(5-71)tightening the screw further and extracting turn and bounce from his
home pitch sensible and stoic batting from Jez Clarke let the visitors hold
on for a losing draw and with a number of surprising results across the
division leaves the title race wide open.
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Barnards Green 3rds vs
Harvington
The Green entertained high flying Harvington with a much changed
side due to holiday commitments and injuries, to make things worse
the Greens star of recent weeks Jason Brewer was waylaid with food
poisoning just before the start of the match and as the team sheets
had been handed into the umpire , the Green had to play with just 10
players.Having won the toss the Green inserted Harvington on a very
green damp wicket.The opening attack of Sam Spencer and Louis Loader
bowled accurately but with little success, opener Delport[south
African] and Tavey had added 50 runs when Loader bowled Delport for
30, Spencer junior then had Tavey bowled for 24, this brought
together Gage[Australia] and O'Neill this pair began to score freely
against the tiring opening attack, Phil Spencer had Gage well caught
by debutante Mark Haffield for 52, then Roger Thompson had Price
caught at mid wicket for 1, this brought to the wicket
McKenzie[south African] to join O'Neill they pushed the score along
to 200 when the returning Sam Spencer accounted for O'Neill for a
fine 68 he then had Powell and Lee both out in the space of 3 balls
for ducks, Jon Lewis was given the chance to perform with his off
spin and he did not disappoint his first ball had Whiston LBW for
one and with his next ball took a fine caught and bowled to remove
Smith for a duck. Harvington declared after 47 overs with a total of
234 for 9, leaving McKenzie not out on 45, pick of the bowlers was
Sam Spencer 16 overs 4 for 63, the green had dearly missed the
eleventh man in the field.
After another fine tea provided from the kitchen of the main ground
,openers Yorke and Lewis strode to the wicket in a bullish mood,
however Lewis was soon out to a superb slip catch by Lee off the
bowling of Gage for 3 when the score was 5, Ratcliffe joined Yorke
and this pair took the attack to the bowlers Yorke's powerful
driving and Ratcliffe's uncanny use pace on the ball saw the Green
race to 74 off 10 overs when Ratcliffe was bowled by O'Neil for 18,
Yorke collected his half century and then was caught at point for
51, Loader was LBW for 4 and Haffield soon followed in the same
fashion for a duck, Dave white was bowled by
O'Neill for five to leave the green in serious trouble at 101
for 6 after 16 overs, Sam Spencer strode to the wicket to join Roger
Thompson in the space of 12 overs this pair added 75 runs with
Spencer being especially brutal and striking the ball cleanly to the
boundary and over it, in the 29th over Spencer was out for a well
struck 40 disappointed that he did not continue his onslaught,
unfortunately for the Green Thompson who had looked like their
likely match winner was bowled by Tavey for 35, this brought
together last pair of Georgia Henessy and Spencer senior, the
innings was brought to an end when Henessy was adjudged to be caught
in the slips off an obvious bump ball. The Green innings ended 174
all out losing by 60 runs. A game lost which with a full complement
of players would of been much closer,to those who turn out a good
effort in a game marred by the constant appealing from the
Harvington team of Oversea's players and out of control but talented
youngster's , perhaps the Harvington skipper should get a grip of
these youngsters before their behaviour is more talked about than
their obvious talent.
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