Beautiful weather and a wonderful place to play cricket failed to inspire the Barrow players who completed their warm up for the forthcoming league season.
Against a Blagdon XI Barrow found themselves chasing 218-8, with Mike York taking 3/35, and two wickets apiece for Barrow newcomer Sam Gosling and Nick Heal.
Although the score was below par for a Hobbs Lane track more reminiscent of late summer, the home team struggled to get on terms with the Blagdon attack. Sam Mitchell (18) and Ellie Holdaway (20) got Barrow of to a promising start but the rest of the batting line up failed to turn up and were all out for 122.
On the following day, Barrow entertained the Charlton Super Kings, regular pre-season visitors. This too though was a one-sided affair with only Jason Cryans (53) making an impact with the bat and there was little joy for the Barrow bowlers too. Barrow’s 110 all out being nowhere good enough.
With the league starting shortly there is much to work on and with availability always an issue starting on May bank holiday it promises to be quite a challenge against Uni Staff at home for the 1stXI and Hallen (away) for the newly promoted 2s without some of the players who helped get them promotion last season.