Maiden Century Leaves Sunday 3rds A Little Too Much To Do

On Sunday the 3rd XI were hoping that a bit of the Saturday magic would rub off and lead to a clean sweep, and it would have done but for one man – Bath Exiles’ L M Jones who chose the day to make his maiden century. Put into bat on a cloudy afternoon Jones was severe on anything full and scored freely in the V and through extra cover.  Oscar Livesey bowled a really accurate spell of 8 overs for 33 in the teeth of the onslaught and the scoring rate which at the start of his spell was over 7 an over was curtailed effectively. Only when Frank Forge came out from behind the stumps to bowl did Barrow finally have some success, breaking the 146 opening stand by inducing the other opener to chip one to Adam Brace. Frank then ended the Jones’ marathon innings thanks to a sharp catch by Leo Brace at point, leaving him on 129. Leo repeated the dose a few balls later taking a spinning edge to help Frank to figures of 4/24 off his 8 overs. Steve Owen (2/16) came back to add a couple of wickets to the four of the day, before Nick Heal chipped in with a late wicket as the Exiles closed on 213-7 which was a lot fewer than it might have been when Mr Jones was in full flow.

In reply Frank Forge (31) started the innings well but the loss of Will Kerswell and Oscar Livesey cheaply dried up the scoring rate.  Steve Owen, batting up the order because he had to leave for work shortly after taking to the crease, was given license to unfurl a few shots. However the attraction of work clearly did not last long as Steve decided to build his innings properly and starting by playing himself in anchored the innings with 38 striking a few blows as he began to realise he would be very late indeed. Steve fell for 38, having batted with young Ben Thorne who continued his impressive start to senior cricket with 14 and Leo Brace who was 11 not out at the end. However, the shots of the innings came from Nick Heal who made 25 in double quick time to be not out at the close with the score 161-6.

Spread the word. Share this post!