The penultimate T20 game of the season took place against a spirited Babcock International team last Wednesday on a balmy summer night..
The game featured some fantastic fielding on both sides, some dashing strokeplay and some dodgy running and was followed by a barbecue kindly provided by the “visitors”, although of course Babcock are not really visitors as they hire our ground for their own inter-departmental games.
Batting first Barrow put on 117-8 in their innings after Mark Fisher (23) got the team off to a good start, a couple of early wickets was then followed by the arrival of Ali Hood, and a couple of runouts (the two events not being entirely coincidental!) soon left Barrow 58-5. Paul Barnes, sporting full Barrow Gurney kit making his debut was delighted to hit both his first run and first boundary before falling to the second run out. When Ali departed for 13 to one of several excellent catches, it looked as though Barrow would not make a competitive score. Bernie Forge (26*) however made sure they did hitting one glorious straight six and was assisted by quick, if brief, contributions by the rest of the lower order.
In reply Dan Garland launched a powerful assault, but Steve Owen did dismiss the other opener for a duck thanks to Oscar Livesey’s contender for catch of the season (a one-handed diving high catch at short-extra which looked a certain four). Skipper Phil Milton tried 9 bowlers 8 of whom took a wicket, including Ben Thorne who took his first senior wicket courtesy of a stumping by Bernie. Paul also took his first wicket as Ben took another good catch in the deep. In fact, wickets fell at regular intervals although Babcock’s batsmen kept the score ticking over and were always in the game. The key turning point (apart from the retirement of Garland when he made 25, to return when the 9th wicket fell) was Frank Forge’s 2 overs in which he took 3/4. Babcock made 110 before Garland finally missed a straight one from Phil to end the game.
A really enjoyable evening once again, and it was nice to see some visitors and friends of players coming to watch the action.