Saturday saw mixed results for the Barrow teams as the 2nds chalked up a much-needed 3rd win of the season against Bedminster 5ths while the firsts narrowly lost out at Hobbs Lane against a lively Bristol West Indian & Phoenix side.
Up at the old Bristol Cathedral Ground in Failand, Ellie Holdway won the toss and put Bedminster into bat on a mottled looking wicket. Bedminster’s side was a blend of youth and experience and Steve Owen (1/16) soon had the young opener caught behind by Bernie Forge but it was when Pete Rooney came into the attack that wickets began to fall regularly. Pete struggled with his line, bowling more wides than he would have liked, but with the score at 59 he bowled the other opener. Barrow were denied a confident caught behind appeal against the dangerous Bedminster captain before Bernie took a sharp stumping and Mark Forge made up for dropping the No 5 batsman by taking a harder catch a few balls later with the score then 91-4. Gareth Ashley then took an excellent high catch to finally dismiss the opposition skipper leaving Pete with 4/54 off his 8 overs. Gareth then came on to take 3/34 himself although also struggled to keep the ball inside the wide markers, bowling in partnership with Barrow skipper Ellie (2/25) to bowl out Bedminster for 175.
In reply Bernie and Mark Gracey made a fast start putting on 48 before Bernie was stumped stretching forward. When James Halladay holed out with the score on 56 Barrow might have wobbled but with Gracey (58 not out) continuing his good run of form and Paul Gard (60 not out) benefitting from some good fortune using the inside edge regularly interspersed with some glorious straight hitting combined to put on 120 to take the team to victory.
The 2nds remain at the foot of the table in their division but are now within striking distance of the 4 teams above them.
Meanwhile at Hobbs Lane, First XI captain Paul Glazzard won the toss and elected to field on a baking hot day against the West Indies. In the first over James Riley induced a nick but unfortunately a fairly regulation catch was put down which rather set the tone for a pretty poor display in the field for the next 25 overs. The Windies were not going to die wondering and aimed some mighty blows at both Riley and Glazzard, occasionally finding the boundary and they had progressed to 80 odd before Luke Glazzard replaced Riley and picked up a wicket bowling the opener with his first delivery and followed this up with the other opener in the next over.
Unfortunately, despite his couple of wickets Luke (2/42) was expensive and Frank Forge (1/46) was also giving the batsmen a hittable boundary ball every over, so although Barrow had started to pick up wickets the run rate was over 5 and an imposing total looked to be on the cards. A catch also went down and the reprieved batter made Barrow pay by going on to make 50. Oscar Livesey bowled well taking 1-15 from 4 overs and also Kieran Owen in his first spell taking 2 for 20 (2/48 overall) which helped Barrow really get a grip on the scoring rate. This was one of the best spells Barrow have seen from Kieran, who was definitely the pick of all the bowlers, producing a very consistent line and length and he got his rewards. Unfortunately for Barrow the opposition no 11 smashed about 30 in 2 overs to propel them to a score of 251-9 after their 45 overs.
After tea Barrow set about chasing the total with Will Kerswell and Ben Skuse opening up getting Barrow off to a flyer with a few boundaries coming off bat, pads and wides before Skuse nudged one into the onside and Will called him for a single, Skuse called ‘no’ but Will carried on and Ben sacrificed his wicket. Roger Finnimore and Will himself followed swiftly, and although Barrow were going at 6 an over they were 3 down before 8 overs had been completed. Paul Glazzard (25) and Ali Hood (17) put on 40 odd but both perished in quick succession leaving Barrow 5 down before they had reached 100. They then had a good partnership between Phil Milton (41) carrying on his good form and Riley, which along with the extras continuing to mount up (eventually totalling 61) moved the score up to 175. Unfortunately Riley followed soon after Phil for 35, like Will and Ali before a victim to a yorker. This left the tail with a lot to do still and despite their best efforts Barrow were all out for 224 to fall to a 27 run defeat – leaving them just ahead of YMCA and Shirehampton who both won on Saturday.