26th May 2008 - Match Reports.

BGCC 1st XI vs Netherton 

On Monday with heavy rain all around Netherton managed to avoid it and so the Green made the journey north to the leagues bottom club.  Again Smedley was unsuccessful with the toss and again the Green was inserted on a sporting wicket.

Mark Hooper was bowled by Dan Jeavons early on but Golder and Paddock worked hard and hit a flurry of early boundaries.  Wickets fell regularly but Golder (40), Paddock (20), Smedley (12), T Clarke (12) and Harris (12) all contributed on a very difficult wicket.  Davenport was able to get huge turn with his left arm spin and also extracted extreme bounce as balls regularly passed the batsman at chest height or higher.  He proved almost impossible to score off so the Green decided to attempt to score at the other end.   Matt Shimell, promoted up the order to number 8 after some absentees due to unavailability and injury batted superbly well in an aggressive manner.  He hit a number of fine cover drives and leg side pulls and flicks.  With the vital support of Matt Brookes whose role was primarily to block Davenport and later L Hooper with late flurry of big hits Shimell managed to get the Green to 181 all out in the 50^th over.

In reply only 2 overs were possible before the rain which for so long had stayed away had finally found its way to Netherton.  The Green picked up 8 points, the second top scorers for the day.  This weekend’s cricket has left the Green in 5^th place still in touch with the early pace setters.