Saturday saw a tale of two very differing fortunes for Barrow’s League sides.
At Hobbs Lane the Seconds took on high-flying Civil Service 2nds and were able to reverse the overwhelming loss in week one of the season. Barrow’s total of 191-9 was anchored by an innings of 64 from Bernie Forge who, after hitting the first two balls of the game to the boundary, went on to hit 10 fours, sharing in a 59 run second wicket partnership with Roger Finnimore (24). Some spectacular hitting from Jonny Sykes (36) including 4 6’s helped Barrow to achieve a competitive total.
After tea Mike Lilley bowled accurately dismissing the opposition skipper for 24, with support from Paul Gard and Kieran Owen, but the turning point came with the introduction of spin. Will Kerswell’s leg-spin caused many problems for the batsmen, and although he took only 1 wicket in his 8 overs for only 22 runs, he induced some rash shots at the other end. Oscar Livesey dismissed the opener Sharma just after he had made 50 and went on to record the best figures of 3/39, whilst fellow off spinner Frank Forge (2/19) helped to polish off the tale after Frank himself, Will and Jonny had all executed excellent run outs.
The excellent win put Barrow 3rd in their table.
Sadly it was a different story for the First XI who lost by 9 wickets in their game against West United as fragile batting left the team with nothing to bowl at.