Barrow Gurney second team arrived at Bradley Stoke Community School hoping to reverse the loss they had suffered earlier in the season and keep their good form of two wins in a row. Jordan Allen stepped in as captain to gain experience as Mark Gracey wanted a week off. Jordan won the toss and decided to bowl on the artificial wicket that could do anything as the Bradley Stoke captain ominously informed Jordan before the toss.
The Fisher twins opened the bowling, both Mark and Guy bowling really well with good pace, line and length, building pressure on both the opening batsmen. But then Bradley Stoke’s opening batsmen Page started to open up his shoulders with one of his fours going under two fences with half the Bradley Stoke team bringing a javelin, broom and cricket bat trying to get the ball back. Then Mark got his own back by getting Page to chop on to his stumps, Guy also getting the number one batsmen in our league, English, who batted for 37 overs only making 36. Mark finished with 4 for 39 and Guy 1 for 31
Will Kerswell picked up one wicket for 37 with Liam Moore taking a sharp catch on the 45. Liam himself bowled with good control until his back started to play up, which brought Dan Jones onto bowl as the pressure started to build on the Bradley stoke batsmen. Dan finished his 7 overs with figures of 1 for 20, Bradley stoke completed their innings finishing on 192 for 8 wickets.
After tea Will Kerswell and Bernie Forge opened the batting for Barrow with aggression, trying to chase down such a big score. With Will and Bernie both playing some lovely shots hitting several boundaries before the first wicket to fall was Bernie going for 46 with everybody in the team on the sidelines hoping she got to her half century. The opening partnership left Barrow on 116 for the first wicket. New look number three batsmen, Mike Lilley came in and played a very sensible innings for 29 and with Will, the second wicket to fall, for a really well played 80 although he was dropped 4 times before he got passed 35. Resting skipper Mark Gracey came to the crease and he scored two before getting bowled leg stump for the second week in a row. Jordan Allen hit a quick 24 before trying to win the game with a six and edging to backward point which left Barrow needing four runs to win which came in the next over with Mike unleashing a flashing cover drive and edging the ball over slip for 4. Barrow won with 3.5 overs to spare.
Barrow took 28 points out of a maximum of 30, which moves them closer to Portishead who are the opposition this weekend so Barrow need to do the double over them to continue their push towards promotion.