Barrow Gurney CC burst back into action, after 3 rain ruined weekends, with both teams recording impressive wins.
Mark Brown’s watchful 57 was crucial to Barrow posting a total
Barrow Firsts were involved in a local derby with Long Ashton at Yanley Lane and were keen to reverse a defeat earlier in the season. Batting first Barrow suffered an early scare when Jason Cryans was out cheaply, and with Kieran Owen following with the score on 25 a partnership was badly needed. Mark Brown came together with Josh Yelland, with Brown being far more watchful than his usual free-scoring self whilst Yelland. the more positive of the two. moved the score past 100 before being bowled for 40. Wickets then began to fall from the other end as Brown continued his careful progress to another half century before being the 8th wicket to fall for a crucial 57. Mark Fisher (18) then did his best to set a decent total but the team were disappointed to be all out for 158.
Josh Yelland (40) put together an important partnership with Mark Brown
Barrow knew early wickets were essential and Nick Heal (8 overs 1 for 22) quickly obliged having the Long Ashton opener caught and then Ed Holdaway dismissed the opposition captain for his first wicket of a stellar afternoon. As the score crawled on to 20 Holdaway trapped 2 batsmen lbw in successive balls, before having a third caught at the wicket for a hattrick to rip the heart out of the Long Ashton batting. Holdaway then duly took his “5 for” at a cost of only 15 runs.
Ed Holdaway bowling at Long Ashton where he took 5 /15
With the score on 27 for 6, the home side staged a brief rally, but with Mark Fisher unusually coming on first change, wickets continued to fall as he took 3 for 22. When Kieran Owen took the final wicket, the total was 91, leaving Barrow winners by 67 runs.
The team celebrate Ed Holdaway’s hat trick
At Hobbs Lane, visitors Hambrook 3s batted first but found scoring difficult on a slow pitch and against some accurate Barrow Gurney bowling. Phil Taylor (5 overs 1 for 10) had some early success before Guy Fisher bowled 8 overs of accurate leg spin taking 1 for 15, then came wickets for Sam Mitchell (2/24), Peter Rooney (1/17) and Paul Gard (2/16) before Ijaz Ahmed (32 not out) launched a final onslaught in the last couple of overs to raise the total to 163-7.
Guy Fisher and Phil Milton took Barrow 2s to victory against Hambrook
Although a modest total at Hobbs Lane, the momentum was with Hambrook and particularly with Ijaz who added 2 early wickets to his tally and at 24-2 there were a few nerves in the Barrow camp. Sam Mitchell played a powerful cameo of 29 before a lengthy delay, after abortive attempts to recover the ball after a massive 6 and then some debate over a suitable spare ball, seemed to break his concentration and he chipped the next ball back to the bowler. But Guy Fisher and Phil Milton (39 not out) came together and batted sensibly, if not without a couple of shots which might have gone to hand, to take the team to a 7-wicket win. Guy hit the winning boundary which also brought up his half century.