Barnards Green cricket Club Match Reports.

April 30th 2005
Barnards Green 2^nd XI vs Cookley	Barnards Green 3^rd XI vs Evesham
This was an unsatisfactory day’s cricket, with an exciting After overnight rain the toss of the coin was always going to be important. Luckily The Green’s captain won the toss and asked cookley to bat first on a green damp wicket. With humid conditions creating excessive swing the Cookley batsmen struggled to score off the impressive line bowled by Matt Brookes. He bowled his 11 overs for only 11 runs and removed 3 of the Cookley top order putting The Green well on top. The introduction of Ian Scullion after a season out with injury proved to be decisive. He bowled an exceptional line and length, his 9 overs consisting of 7 maidens for only 5 runs, 4 of those runs being an edge through the slips. His 2 wickets helped The Green to make further inroads into a now fragile looking Cookley batting lineup. Rich Brown took 2 wickets for 7 runs as the Cookley innings finished on 102 in the 50th over. This was an impressive display of bowling backed up by an energetic young fielding side. After the early loss of Judd Doughty to a leading edge, Jon Lewis playing a mature holding role and Mark Hooper who stroked the ball to all parts of the ground, had little trouble in overtaking Cookley’s low score. Jon Lewis unfortunately played on when in sight of victory for a grafting 17, leaving Mark Hooper 73 not out, a very impressive innings in not the easiest of conditions. The Green took 20 points, a good start to the season. Cookley vs BGCC First XI on sat bgcc travelled to cookley for their first game in div 2 after being promoted last year.captain chris smedley lost the toss and the green were asked to bat first on an interesting looking track. steady progress was made throughout the innings in difficult circumstances with most batsmen contributing to a useful score of 210 for 8. dan flynn top scoring with 87. cookley were never allowed to settle in their reply,  finally being bowled out in just 22.4 overs for 53 with all 3 bowlers used returning top figures. chris harrison 2 for 22, jez clarke 2 for 4 and the reliable tim williams taking the man of the match award with figures of 5 for 14 off 11 overs. the green will be expecting a far stiffer test this weekend as they entertain old rivals belbroughton at north end lane.	Barnards Green ‘Singles’ took on an Evesham ‘Development’ XI on Saturday and were soundly thrashed by nine wickets, although the Singles did have the rough end of the wicket after Skipper Ratcliffe had won the toss. The Singles were greeted by an array of boys and girl warming up prior to the match and the general consensus was bat first so we all get a chance of a knock. Ratters duly won the toss and bat we did. With the ball rearing up alarmingly openers Freeman and Curtis survived the early onslaught but scored slowly. The change bowlers failed to create the venomous deliveries of earlier and the pair started to score more quickly. A rush of boundaries from each and then a towering six from Freeman saw the score progress to 69 at drinks. Freeman then fell LBW for 33 and a shooter accounted for Curtis for 32. White and Brown took advantage of the easing wicket and easier bowling to score rapidly. White hit a six over the pavilion whilst Brown hit the fielders who failed to hold onto the chances offered to them. White perished for 27 in search of quick runs. Dean came and went after a glorious square cut but attempting to clear the pavilion proved his undoing. Brown continued to push the ball to all parts for 39 no. Robbie Lewis rolled back the years with a cheeky 10 no, including a six that had the insurance policies checked and an ambulance called as the ball narrowly missed two elderly ladies out walking the dogs (or had Robbie invited them to watch him play?). The Singles had set Evesham 164 for victory. After an excellent tea with the obligatory pilchard sandwiches, although the tea lady had gone home in disgust to fetch her portable telly so that she could watch the snooker, it was fielding for the first time this season. An early burst from Spiers and an early retirement from Tyler failed to achieve the breakthrough as the openers eased the ball around and dispatched the bad ball to the boundary. With the wicket now dried out and offering the bowlers no help whatsoever it was a slog in the field. Ratcliffe brought himself and Lewis on to stem the flow of runs and the experiment of Brewer brought about the only wicket. This brought in the Evesham number 3 who eyed the bowling and the boundaries with eager anticipation. Thrashing the ball to all parts Evesham quickly homed in on their target. Spiers was brought back and promptly saw a catch put down by Curtis, a non attempt from Curtis and edges through the gaps. Williams bowled a tidy spell to delay the inevitable and Freeman bowled a very tight and tidy spell including the “mystery ball” but it was to no avail as both batters passed fifty to record a nine wicket success.