After a tough first week of the season, it had to be onwards and upwards for the second’s and they arrived at Hobbs Lane on Saturday morning keen to redeem themselves after a big defeat. New skipper Ellie Holdaway won the toss against Carsons Mangotsfield and elected to field.
Steve Owen and Mike Lilley opened the bowling attack, bowling a steady line and length against some well versed openers. They were both unlucky not to get a wicket but gave Barrow a great start with very economic bowling, especially Mike whose figures were 8 -1-22-0. After this Paul Gard and Adam Brace took to the attack, they again bowled well but by now Carson’s captain and opening bat was well in and beginning to let loose’ therefore making him a difficult target to bowl at. He continued to score quickly despite the good bowling and had soon reached 50 and from there he started to attack the boundaries. Finally, he was dismissed by Ellie after he swept the ball to square leg where Mike Lilley, with cat like reflexes, plucked it from the air!
The remainder of Carsons’ batting line up continued to play well, and were still proving hard to bowl at until Kieran Owen struck with a perfectly placed ball to the batsman who was coming down the wicket and bowled him all ends up.
Jonny Sykes then joined the attack and he and Kieran bowled well at the death to keep Carsons to a restrained 185-2 off of their 40 overs.
After an incredible tea provided by the Owens, Roger Finnimore and Bernie Forge took to the wicket and, despite some good bowling, they both scored quickly and gave Barrow a fantastic start putting on a 50 partnership before Bernie was bowled for 32. This introduced Paul Gard, who continued the momentum built by Bernie and Roger. However, Roger was then run out for 40 and Gardy was caught for 12 which brought Barrow’s key partnership, Jonnie Sykes and Jordan Allen, to the crease. Jordan was unfortunately dismissed LBW for 9 after looking in good form and Jonnie was clearly keen to play himself in and play a more subdued, grafting innings. as he scored 4,6,4 consecutively before being bowled. At this point Barrow were 130/5 with Ellie and Kieran at the crease, and with about 14 overs to go we needed 56 runs. Ellie and Kieran were faced with two new bowlers and were struggling to score runs. Kieran played some lovely shots through the onside but it was clear that Carsons had tactically saved these bowlers for the death as there were not many bad balls to put away. Kieran was then bowled for 10 and after some big hitting by Mark Forge, Ellie and Adam finished Barrow’s innings 169/8 off of 40 overs.
A disappointment to lose by 16 runs was tempered with the feeling that this was however a massive improvement from last week and a number of positives to take away from a close game against a good side
The search for the 2nds’ first win of the season continues against United Banks next week.