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Wormelow vs Barnards
Green 1st XI 28/4/2007
Saturday saw the Green open their league campaign at the picturesque
Wormelow Cricket Club who had gained promotion to Division two at the
expense of the Green’s local rivals Colwall.
Visiting captain Chris Smedley lost the toss and the home captain
surprisingly inserted the visitors on a dry and undulating deck that looked
bound to deteriorate as the game progressed.
Early suggestions were that Wormelow had made the right decision however as
openers Golder and Smedley struggled to come to terms with the slow nature
of the pitch and in particular the accurate bowling of veteran Wilde. With
Smedley struggling Golder decided to take the aerial route and managed this
with massive success as the opening stand began to take shape. Smedley
finally got off the mark in the 14th over by which time Golder had unleashed
several punishing blows and started to make the scorers earn their money.
When Smedley was dismissed for a painstaking 29 off 75 balls a fantastic
platform had been set with the score 122-1. Golder was joined by promising
youngster Paul Whack who mixed stoic defence with some beautifully timed
cuts and drives to lift the scoring rate to nearly 6 runs per over . Whack
was dismissed for a useful 37 whilst Golder completed a quite brilliant
century with yet another brutal stroke.
Golder brought up a superb 150 with a well timed drive however was
unfortunately dismissed shortly afterwards for 151 just when the division
record score of 184 set by former Green Great Daniel Raymond Flynn was in
danger. A late run a ball cameo from Paul Drinkwater pushed the score ever
closer to the magical 300 however late wickets meant that the Green had to
be happy with a total of 297-7.
Scoring was slow when the Wormelow batsman commenced their ascent on the
visitors total with overseas import Andrew Hoogstraten and home grown hero
Kevin Downes bowling with great accuracy on a pitch that offered variable
bounce and seam movement to the opening attack. Downes made the first
breakthrough ripping through the defences of the opening batter and added a
second scalp thanks to a sharp catch by Jez Clarke at fly slip.
Tim Williams took over from Downes and immediately settled into a rhythmical
spell and returned to form with the fantastic figures of 2-18 from 8 overs.
Smedley mixed his bowlers well in the search for 24 points and after 11
overs of spin from Clarke and Ford called upon the unlucky Hoogstraten to
try and blast through the lower middle order. The big man from Mount
Manganui, New Zealand did not disappoint and finished with figures of 3-23
off his 13 overs when he destroyed the stumps of Wilde to give Barnards
Green their 1st league win of the season.
Only Shaw with 35 and Powell with 23 showed any real resistance in an
innings that contained 7 ducks and skipper Smedley was delighted with the
performance as well as the result.
The Green face Monmouth at North End Lane this Saturday with admission free
to all.
BGCC 297-7 Golder 151, Whack 37, Waldron 4-71, Wilde 3-76
Wormelow 102 all out, Shaw 35, Powell 23, Hoogstraten 3-23, Downes
2-24,Williams 2-14
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BGCC 2nd XI vs Worcester Nomads
Barnardsgreen entertained worcester nomads on the opening league
game of the season, with the ground basking in sunshine and looking
a picture, credit must be given to the hard work of groundsman roy
mayo for all his preseason hard work.
Nomads won the toss and asked the green to make first use of what
looked like a perfect batting wicket,the green lost scullion[jnr] in
the first over which brought tim clarke in to join lewis hooper they
proceeded to bat sensibly taking advantage of any loose balls , with
the score on 63 clarke was caught at longoff after being decieved
with the flight of lloyd for a classy 31.Tom clack struck 17 before
he became lloyds second victim, hooper went for a patient 23 and
roger thompson for 11, leaving the green 108 for 5 after 25
overs.The evergreen steve metcalfe was joined by skipper spencer who
restored the innings direction by adding a 50 run partnership before
spencer was bowled for a steady 16. with a reasonable total already
assured metcalfe was given his head to cut loose, his innings went
from being responsible to being one of mass destruction, his second
fifty came off only 22 balls, he reached a magnificent hundred his
first league century for the green, he was well supported by brookes
17 and scullion 9.Metcalfe innings of 109no contained three sixes
and sixteen fours he had made sure the green posted a very
defendable 263 off their 50 overs, Goodreds and Lloyd toiled away
taking 4 wickets each but could not contain the destructive
Metcalfe.
In reply Nomads struggled against the experienced Ian Scullion and
the more aggressive sam spencer, their opening burst of eighteen
overs reduced Nomads 67 for 3, scullion taking 3 for 18 and spencer
unlucky to take a wicket conceding 38 of which 11 were very harsh
wides as nomads hoped to increase their scoring.They were replaced
by the swing of Matt Brookes and offspinner Lewis hooper, Brookes
soon found his line and length and with the aid of unusual field
placings to combat the excessive swing ,he was soon among the
wickets taking 3 for 21,well supported by Hooper with 2 for 25. The
greens fielding was of a high standard with good catches and two
fine runouts by youngsters Clack and Scullion [jnr].Nomads were
dismissed for 114 in the 33rd over leaving the green comfortable
winners by 149 runs .
The green picket up 24 points and Nomads 4.
Once again thanks to Roy Mayo for produing a fine true wicket.
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