26th August 2006 - Match reports.
Eastnor vs BGCC 1st VI	BGCC 2nd XI vs Eastnor
This local” Derby game” between Eastnor c.c. and Barnards Green c.c. in the Crusader Div. 1 W.C.L. was played at the picturesque ground by Eastnor Castle under bright conditions, but on a damp, green wicket. Eastnor won the toss and put the away side into bat. The leading Barnards Green batsmen all struggled to contend with the pitch conditions, not to mention the tight accurate bowling of  Adeel and Shahid who returned excellent bowling figures of 4 for 46 off 19 overs and 1 for 19 off 16 overs respectively. The top five Greens batsmen being back in the pavilion by the 20^th over for the addition of only 27 runs. It looked at this stage we would all be home for tea time, but in came captain Chris Smedley who with Phil Harris stemmed the flow of wickets to build an innings saving partnership of 82 runs before they were both caught out in successive overs for 39 and 38 of the bowling of Jabran and Atiq in the 43^rd and 44^th overs. The Greens tail wagged a bit, with Tim Williams scoring 16 valuable runs to leave them all out for a lowly 141 in the 48^th over.  Eastnors reply got off to a shaky start, as they in turn lost both openers for 14 by the sixth over. The Green supporters all thought “Game on” but two overs later the rain came down heavy, delaying play for one hour, with the loss of 17 overs to the Eastnor innings. The result of this interruption meant a calculated run total of 99 runs were required by Eastnor to secure a winning draw result, or142 runs for an outright win. from a total of 35 overs. Andy. Ford was the pick of the Greens bowlers trying to prevent this taking   4 for 61 off 16 overs as Eastnor’s batsmen eased their way to victory with Ferreria (40no) and Arshad (37) leading the way, finishing on a winning total score of 143 for 6 by their 34^th over.                                     Eastnor c.c. ---------------- 20 Points                                     Barnards Green -----------   3 Points             Next match is Bromyard at home, on Sept.2^nd , starting at 12-30pm.	The return fixture between the Green and Eastnor, provided a good opportunity for the Green to build on recent results and consolidate their position in mid table of the Crusader Worcestershire Cricket League 2nd XI Division One. With another excellent looking wicket prepared by Roy Mayo, both teams were keen to make full use. Eastnor won the toss and elected to bat wanted to post and big score and then restrict the aggressive looking Green line up. Sam Spencer and Tom Clack again showed great promise with the ball and kept the openers to less than 4 an over in the first 10 overs. The introduction of Thompson and Phil Spencer, only added to the slow run rate, with their experience telling against the youth and ‘not so young’ Eastnor batting line up. With 42 overs complete, the increasingly heavy and dark clouds opened and the players took refuge in the pavilion and an early tea. After the interval, Eastnor were much more aggressive to try and post a bigger total, in stepped James Scullion to take 3 wickets in one over. Eastnor were all out for 212 in the 49th over, with D Baker making 71 and A Greaves 50 for Eastnor and Phil Spencer 3 for 15 and James Scullion 3 for 22. With the skippers instructions of sensible and watchful batting required Wheeler and Knapper opened and slowly made their way to 30 off 3 overs! Knapper batted with confidence to reach 41 and was ably supported by M Hooper and N Rogers. With 4 wickets down and 130 on the board, Roger ‘Run Machine’ Thompson and Lewis Hooper came together and proceeded to turn what could have been a close game into a walk in the park! Thompson was left on 49 and Hooper on 36, when opening bowler Hussain returned to bowl a huge wide and not let Thompson win the game and bring up his fifty! The green won by 6 wickets and with 20 overs to spare, gaining 24 points