Barrow 1sts are ruing being on the wrong side of another close game. Losing the toss Barrow were put into bat on a track that was bone dry and one on which Barrow skipper Phil Milton would also have chosen to bat. Things didn’t begin well when Ben Skuse was run out (again) and Ali Hood lost his leg stump misjudging one. Mark Brown and Guy Fisher then batted really well before Brown went for 40 and Guy followed after some lovely shots for 25. Yet again this season the Barrow innings was on the edge and could have gone one way or the other and it took some big hitting from Premil Torrington (35), Sameera (20) and James Riley (18) to take them to a competitive, although below par, 203-9 from 45 overs. The top order needed to score some bigger runs and play longer innings to allow those at the end to play a little more freely. 220+ was a probably a par total.
Riley and Matt Owen opened up and although they bowled well the Lodway openers, Rob Dickens and Matt Young were able to score at a steady rate and didn’t give too many chances and were soon 100-0. Enter Sami who was unlucky to start with and was about to be taken out of the attach when he decided he wanted one more, a good job too as he picked up 2 wickets in an over and another 2 in the next, finishing with figures of 4-36. Mark Fisher picked up 3 quick wickets (3-24 in all) and all of a sudden Lodway were 7 down still needing 40 odd to win. Despite a wicket from Matt Owen and a run out from Alvis, Barrow couldn’t take the last wicket as Lodway’s number 9, Joe Rowsell finished 37 not out, taking them home by one wicket with 8 balls to spare.