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Posted:
Monday 23rd June 2008
Source: Stephen Birley
Bradninch managed to beat the weather � almost, as they
continued their merry way towards the top flight of County
Cricket. Gary Newall was the chief architect of yet another
batting performance that realised maximum batting points for
Joel Murphy�s men in their home game with Barton. Newall opened
the innings with Dan Hardy and the pair had put on 81 when Hardy
ran himself out for 17, Newall stuck around and continued to
dominate the bowling. His half-century came up off 62 balls
and he was finally dismissed looking to force the pace of the
innings, selfishly giving up the opportunity to reach a century
for himself when he holed out on 95. Newall had faced 110
deliveries hitting thirteen 4s and a couple of 6s in a vintage
display of hitting. After he fell Tom Piper took on the mantle
of holding the innings together as both Ryan Butterworth and
Adrian Ezquerro fell cheaply and when Ross Acton also fell
without troubling the score book too much the side�s chances of
reaching the 5th batting points seemed to diminish. However
Gary Chappell joined Piper and he set about the visiting bowling
to great effect plundering 27 in just 15 balls faced. Piper was
unbeaten on 29, this from 84 balls faced, when the innings
closed on 205-5. The Chappell cameo was a delight to see as he
made batting look decidedly easy in what were undoubtedly
testing conditions both for batsman and bowler. Adrian
Ezquerro (3-19) and Ross Acton (2-26) quickly made inroads into
the Barton batting but the dark clouds once again descended and
the umpires offered the light to the batsmen who couldn�t get
off quickly enough beating a hasty retreat to the pavilion with
the reply on 60-5 after 19 overs. No further play was possible
and so Bradninch had to settle for 13 points. Murphy�s men who
sit 30 points clear of 3rd placed Cornwood, now face an exacting
five-game sequence travelling to Brixham, Chudleigh and Cornwood
whilst hosting Braunton and Bovey Tracey. After this run of
matches they will hope to still be in a top two position from
which they can complete their season and head for the promised
land of Premier Division cricket next season. Meanwhile the
club�s 2nd XI were in action at Barton II where they were
looking to bounce back from the previous week�s defeat at an
Axminster II side who, it was later revealed, had fielded four
of their regular 1st XI. It was great to see former skipper
Chris Acton making a first start of the season for the Bradninch
2nds and he was quickly into his stride as he provided the
team�s top individual score of 36. The �best of the rest� came
from brother Rob (22) but as to whether 169-8 was a
match-winning score on the South Devon coast we shall never know
for the home side did not get the chance to take on any form of
run chase as the heavens opened to wash the remainder of the
game away. So it�s half-way next Saturday for the 2nds and
they go into a home game with Abbotskerswell on 71 points from 8
games which sees them nine points and two places off the drop
zone. | 
