As players arrived on a sunny Saturday morning, for the second team game against Stapleton 3s, there was much debate over the weather forecast that afternoon. Some said it would rain from 3 o’clock, others said patchy showers throughout the day, and some said no rain forecast at all. Skipper Ellie Holdaway decided that, if she won the toss and was therefore given the choice, she would elect to bat to try and avoid batting on a wet pitch.
Fortunately, this is exactly what happened, so Ellie and Bernie Forge opened up on a deceivingly hot summer’s day. They got off to an absolute flyer with both Ellie and Bernie scoring very quickly. They put on a partnership of 60 runs after just 9 overs before Ellie was dismissed trying to drive a floaty spinner and gave a dolly of a catch to Mid Off. This brought Mark Gracey to the crease, who played some textbook forward defensives before unfortunately being caught on the pads and being given out LBW for 1. Next in was Frank Forge who hasn’t had a lot of batting lately, however he quickly showed his worth at number 4, he and Bernie put on a heart-warming sibling partnership of 115 before he was caught for 46.
At this point Bernie was approaching her 100 and was joined at the crease by Jonny Sykes who played some strong drives although managed to find the field with each one. He was then unfortunately bowled for 3. Finally, James Halladay joined the fray, and in his brief time at the wicket he scored a prompt 11 not out while at the other end Bernie celebrated her maiden 100! She is the first female player to score 100 for Barrow Gurney, so massive congratulations to her to have achieved such a milestone and to serve, along with Ellie herself, as a role model to all of the female cricketers at the club – of whom there are several. She carried her bat to end the innings after 40 overs 106 not out, and as a team Barrow ended up with 230 for 4. A fantastic batting performance all round!
When Barrow returned to the field Ellie was determined that Barrow should dominate in their bowling and fielding as well as they did with the bat. Ellie was hoping for a maximum points victory and her bowlers were up to the challenge too. Wickets were spread around between Barrow’s bowlers, with Mike Lilley dismissing two dangerous looking batsmen within his 8 over opening spell and Kieran Owen, having opened from the other end, also took a significant wicket in his spell. First change bowlers of Paul Gard and Oscar Livesey bowled exceptionally well, with Paul bowling 6 overs, 3 maidens, 2 wickets for 5 runs and Oscar bowling 8 overs, 4 maidens 2 for 11. Between the two of them they kept it very quiet with their maidens whilst also striking frequently to take significant wickets, at this point Stapleton had fallen behind the run rate and Barrow were becoming hopeful for their first victory. Steve Owen then came on and he also picked up two wickets for 22 runs in his six overs. James Halladay bowled at the death and was able to keep Stapleton quiet but unfortunately his consistent bowling couldn’t quite lead to a wicket and finally Ellie brought herself on in a search for maximum points, which was obtained with a full toss that the poor batsman misjudged.
Stapleton finished up 115 all out off of 39.4 overs.
A deserved first victory for Barrow seconds against a thoroughly fair and friendly side, hopefully they can take this victory with them into next week’s game against Old Bristolians.