After last week’s rainy end to Barrow Gurney’s 1st XI win over Shirehampton, this Saturday’s game was played on a scorcher of a day as they took on Frenchay. Paul Glazzard lost the toss and Barrow were put into bat.
Barrow got off to something of a flyer and maintained this through to the first drinks break at 15 overs when they were 70 for just the loss of Ali Hood. Extras (mainly leg side wides) were the leading scorers at this point having made 30 already and went onto account for 45 of the eventual total. Roger Finnimore fell soon after the break for 15 but Barrow were well placed at 115-2 just after the halfway point with ambitions of a 240+ total, when Paul Glazzard who was well set on 39 was caught trying to take the attack to their spinners.
This derailed things a bit as the opposition bowled with great control regularly bowling at the stumps and on a decent length which made scoring difficult. Wickets then fell at regular intervals with several batsmen getting set before failing to push on to a significant sore. A little cameo from the returning Luke Glazzard in tandem with Phil Milton, putting on 28 for the 9th wicket helped Barrow past 180 but this was a below par score by at least 40 runs.
The track, while a little low at times was suited to batting and the outfield was lightning quick so 180 was always going to be difficult to defend so Barrow knew they would have to bowl well. Unfortunately, (and unusually) Mark Fisher struggled with his line and was punished. James Riley was asked to bowl his full 9 overs in one go in the searing heat (1/30) and as ever looked threatening but the top order batsmen saw him off. Of the other bowlers Paul Glazzard gave Barrow some control and could have had 3 or 4 more than his 1 wicket with the number of shots that squirted away just wide or short of fielders and Matt Owen executed an excellent 1 stump to aim at run out and bowled pretty well but was on a bit of a hiding to nothing as Frenchay were in control and accelerating towards the winning total.
Frenchay duly won by 5 wickets, with a dozen or more overs to spare – while Barrow didn’t do ourselves justice it was no disgrace to lose to one of the stronger sides they have faced so far. Barrow picked up 6 points and every point will be important this year as the 3 other teams they are competing with at the bottom of the table also lost on the day.
Meanwhile the 2nd XI were away to St Mary Redcliffe 2nds and, winning the toss, put the home side into bat. After a steady start against some accurate bowling from Barrow’s opening attack of Paul Gard and Adam Brace, the score reached 58 before Ellie Holdway (3/33) and Oscar Livesey (4/12) combined to reduce the opposition to 76 for 6 aided by some trademark unorthodox catching by Adam (this time under his arm), and one of the opposition batsman going right back to one of Oscar’s fuller deliveries and treading on his stumps. When Oscar took a sharp chance off his own bowling the hosts were reeling at 77 for 7.
As so often this season, Barrow failed to press home their advantage as the 8th wicket pair put on 83 as Wright made a half century and the ominously named Simon Jones contributed 31. The 9th wicket pair then added a further 32 to take the score to a competitive 192-9 at the close.
A good start was needed for Barrow as the father and daughter Holdaway combination took to the crease. Ellie, though, was bowled Jones, the first of six victims in a match-winning performance. This left Pete to anchor the innings with 35 but he received little support in the face of Jones’ inspired spell -with only young Ben Thorne adding to his good start to senior cricket and Barrow’s MVP Oscar making double figures as they crashed to 110 all out.
The 2nds are now propping up the division, but are hopeful that, with more players being available in the coming weeks, this will give them the impetus the side needs to get a couple of wins under their belt to fight for their place in Division 13.
So to Sunday and another searing hot day as the 3rd XI travelled to fellow strugglers Chilcompton. Unfortunately with the boundary being 50 yards away from the pavilion, there was no shade on the pitch or off.
Chastened by last week’s leather-chasing in the field, skipper Mark Forge elected to bat on winning the toss. Openers Bernie Forge and Pete Holdaway had to contend with a slow outfield making scoring difficult, spirited fielding and some erratic bowling with numerous wides interspersed with some really good deliveries. Pete played a frustrated-looking shot and was caught & bowled. Bernie looked increasingly fluent before being beaten by one that turned to be dismissed for 15. Rod Reeves (23) and Frank Forge then added 46 with Chilcompton throwing in some no balls to add to the burgeoning number of wides. Rod played some powerful shots behind square on the leg side finding the boundary a couple of times which was quite a feat without taking the aerial route.
Rod, acting on instructions from the skipper to accelerate the rate, missed an optimistic swing, whilst Paul Glazzard following his skipper in hitting one glorious boundary only to be caught attempting to repeat the shot. With the score barely over 100, the last few overs of the innings belonged to the Under 13s with Leo Brace and Isaac Todman impressing with their technique although the outfield did not help their attempts to score. Barrow finished on 127-9 which was never going to be enough.
After tea, Pete Rooney opened up supported by Melissa Owen who bowled 3 immaculate overs for only 7 runs. Pete struck in his second over inducing a false shot to mid-off where Paul Glazzard pouched the catch. Pete followed up by getting the other opener to play on to take 2/29 in his 6 overs. Frank bowled 5 good overs and was unlucky to have at least one delivery appear to go between the off and middle stump. Meanwhile Isaac Todman replaced Pete for his first bowl on his senior debut. Hitting a good line and length straight away he started with a wicket maiden as he rattled the stumps with a yorker to the delight of the whole team. Although Leo Brace also bowled well, the 4th wicket pair took the attack to the bowlers and finished the game off with 16 overs to spare.
Chilcompton leapfrog Barrow in the North Somerset Conference with bottom club Bath Exiles due to visit Hobbs Lane next week.