Barrow Gurney’s second week of friendly games resulted in success against Blagdon and Axbridge, with several players taking advantage of the opportunity to get some match practice.
On Saturday at Hobbs Lane Barrow struggled early on losing 4 wickets for 17 runs, and although Ed Holdaway, Jonny Sykes and Guy Fisher all played cameos it was only a 100 partnership between Kieran Owen (54 not out) and Mark Fisher (55) which posted a competitive total of 218-8.
Blagdon too suffered early setbacks as Holdaway (2/2) accounted for both openers, before Toby Barlow (68) started moving the score along. There were wickets for all the Barrow bowlers as Blagdon slowly began to fall behind the rate required. Phil Milton then swiftly mopped up the tail as they tried to score quickly taking 3 for 16.
On Sunday Barrow again batted first against visitors Axbridge. Connor Jones made an attractive 44, whilst skipper Peter Rooney batted with controlled aggression to make his first 50 for Barrow Gurney. Some impressive late order hitting from Phil Taylor (31) left Axbridge chasing 213.
An opening stand of 72 promised a close game but Mike Lilley (2/11) and Phil Taylor (2/5) bowled well in partnership to halt the charge. Ben Saunders (2/22) also chipped in as Axbridge fell 47 short.