30th July 2011 - Match Reports.

Barnards Green 3rds vs Avoncroft 1sts.

With their regular Captain still affected by some kind of illness it was down to stand-in skipper Adam Greaves to lose the toss. He duly obliged and was, unsurprisingly invited to bat first on a deceptively wet wicket. Chris Hill (9) and Graham Baddeley (9) provided a sound enough start in difficult conditions taking the score to 24 before the latter was bowled by Rodway’s vicious in-swinger and then three balls later Hill attempted to swipe a full toss through square leg only to find the safe hands of  Lyddiat. Jon Lewis and skipper Greaves began the task of rebuilding the innings, Lewis taking the lead with a succession of flourishing drives and cuts. Greaves (4) perished cheaply caught off the bowling of Pittam and gave way to Roger Thompson who seemed to have re-discovered his natural aggressive form as he and Lewis took the total on to 99 before Lewis (39) fell caught and bowled by Carpenter. Julian Hall joined Thompson and both men looked untroubled before contriving to get themselves out in consecutive overs. Thompson (35) became Carpenter’s second victim, caught by Hare and then Hall (34) attempted a sweep shot, (which by his own admission he cannot play), and was lbw to James. Suddenly The Green found themselves 149 for 6 with still twenty overs remaining. Then began a famous Barnards Green collapse as four batsmen came and went amassing just four runs between them and leaving the home side all out for 158 knowing that they should easily have posted a total well in excess of 200.

For Avoncroft James and Carpenter did the damage finishing with figures of 8-1-36-4  and  11-1-36-3 respectively. 

Avoncroft emerged in confident mood having a full 63 overs in which to surpass the meagre total but The Green, still smarting from a humiliating defeat the previous week, had other ideas. Chris Hill and Jack Cullity produced their best form of the season with the ball, causing Hare and Lydiatt to play and miss and restricting the visitor’s run-rate to a trickle. In the sixth over Cullity produced a sensational delivery which swung away and then seamed back up the hill to remove Hare’s off stump. Two balls later Hill took a diving catch off his own bowling to remove Lydiatt. Cullity claimed two more scalps having Cox (5) caught by Baddeley and then clean bowing Duffill for a duck. Hill and Cullity were rested and replaced by Roger Thompson and Clive Churchill and briefly the run-rate escalated as wides came into play. James grafted away trying to restore some order to the visitor’s innings but when the irrepressible Cullity held on to a difficult chance off Churchill and dismissed Avoncroft’s captain for 20 Barnards Green began to feel more confident but the visitors still had 39 overs to score just 100 runs and this match was not yet over. Dave Price was brought into the attack to eat up some of the overs bowling five successive maidens and with frustration beginning to build in the visitor’s camp Churchill found renewed aggression and took three wickets in four balls and suddenly Avoncroft were 65 for 8. Carpenter showed brief resistance before being bowled by Price and when Cullity returned to claim his fourth victim, having Pittam trapped lbw, the Avoncroft innings was closed out for 96.
This was a better performance by The Green with a number of their middle-order batsmen getting starts but again too many batsmen gave their wickets away cheaply. This week however they had posted sufficient runs for their bowlers to recover the situation, bowling as a unit to gain the victory.

BGCC Bowling  figures:

Jack Cullity 10-4-16-3    C live Churchill  8-1-38-4