Barrow Gurney’s Chairman, Phil Milton, celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of the club with his maiden century on Saturday.
On 1 June 1874, a group of local people, including the local vicar, founded the club and a copy of the founding document is proudly displayed in the pavilion. Exactly 150 years later the club was planning an evening of celebrations in any event, but the day was made even more special by the performance of Phil.
Having played for the club since his youth, and having captained the First XI for some years, and more recently played some 2nd XI games when the full First XI squad was available, he had never scored a hundred. His previous highest was 94.
Opening the batting he batted throughout the Barrow innings as Barrow 2nds took on Nailsea 2nds at Hobbs Lane. After a cautious start a straight 6 set the tone of the innings as he was particularly severe on anything full. He was fortunate to survive a chance in the thirties when he found long off but the catch was not taken. From then on he gave no further chances until he had made his hundred. After reaching that milestone he had a little more good fortune, but the runs kept flowing and the spectators began to wonder if he would make 150 on the 150th anniversary. In fact, he went beyond that as he hit 9 sixes and 19 fours to finish on 176 not out, which is believed to be the highest ever score made for the club in its history.
Phil Milton reaches his hundred
A lovely cameo innings of 35 by Toby Connock, together with good contributions from Will Thompson (31 not out) and Kieran Owen (28) helped the score along to 328-4. With Nailsea having suffered a couple of injuries in the field, Barrow needed to take only 8 wickets to win and despite some spirited batting from several promising young players Barrow ran out comfortable winners by 249 runs. Frank Forge took 3 for 11, with 2 wickets apiece for Dave Smith and Paul Gard.
Barrow 2s remain top of Division 9 West after only dropping one point in 5 games. Meanwhile Barrow First XI continued their recovery from a disappointing start to the season winning their third game on the trot at Winterbourne against their A XI. Barrow bowled the home side out for 106 with leg-spinner Guy Fisher taking 5 for 19. Nick Heal also bowled well taking 2 for 13 off his 8 overs.
Barrow were not really troubled as they passed the total for the loss of only one wicket with Ed Holdaway finishing on 51 not out. The First XI are now tied for second place in Division 4 of the Bristol & District League.