|
Posted:
Sunday 28th June 2009
Source: Stephen Birley
A
disappointing end to the first half of the first top-flight
season. The final game of the first half of the Francis Clark
Devon League campaign had a miserable end for Bradninch
followers as the 1st XI slipped into a relegation berth off the
back of a six-wicket defeat at North Devon with the Instow men
comfortably chasing down a target of 197, to win with seven
overs and one ball to spare.
Bradninch batted first and were quickly in big trouble with both
Dan Hardy and Richard Foan back in the Instow pavilion without
either having troubled the scorers. Poor old Richard must be
glad to see the back of the first half of his season for he has
yet to register a score anywhere near the sort of totals that he
is renowned for � perhaps better things are to come in the
second half of the campaign.
The one shining light for the side at the moment with the bat
once again came to the fore. Gary Chappell has been the one
stand-out player in this first season of top-flight cricket at
Kensham Park and yet again it was very much Chappell versus the
opposition.
First the Bath University student was joined by Tim Piper and
the pair took the score to 87 before Piper joined Foan and Hardy
in the clubhouse. Gary Newall then came in and he did his bit
with a knock of 23 to see the total on to 133-4, but this is
when the rot set in as the Instow scoreboard moved from 132-3 to
183-9.
Only a last wicket partnership between Joe Webb (18no) and Paul
Nott (2) helped take the side close to 200, the final wicket
falling with the total on 196. Ross Acton had chipped in with 20
but Joel Murphy (4), Eliot Acton (1) and Billy Wakeley (1), all
went cheaply and, without a splendid 72 from new Devon man
Chappell, the Bradninch offering would have been much less.
What the visiting side needed was an early lift post-tea. It
duly arrived with the home side on 32 as Paul Nott had Jason
Hayes caught behind but this brought Stuart Rhodes to the crease
and he and Dan Bowser added 117 for the 2nd wicket and the
Bradninch fate was sealed. Rhodes went for 54, trapped leg
before by star man Chappell but Bowser went on to thump 93
before being caught by Ross Acton off Gary Newall � one of eight
different bowlers used by skipper Murphy on the day.
The winning runs were scored with batsmen six and seven at the
wicket and with some 43 balls of the home innings remaining.
The defeat became all the more painful when news filtered
through of a rare success for Sandford and so Bradninch arrive
at the half-way mark of the season just one place and one point
above the foot of the table. |
