Bromyard Cricket – NARROW DEFEAT FOR 1STS BUT FIRST WIN OF SEASON FOR 2NDS

Bromyard 1st XI went down to a 2 wicket defeat after a hard-fought game away at old rivals Redditch. On a warmish early May afternoon and on a decent looking pitch, the home side won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first. Bromyard made a steady start, mainly through a surfeit of wides from the experienced Waqas Ali, before Edd Oliver (7) attempted to drive a fullish delivery from Ali outside off stump, but edged behind to leave the score 27 for 1 in the 9th over. Once they cut down on the wides the home side tightened things up and Nick Leighton (5) was the next wicket to fall, bowled by young off-spinner Sahil Mahmood to make it 51 for 2 in the 14th over. George Godsall made a fast start with some typically forthright pulls and drives, mainly off the medium pacer Haleem Basharat, but then holed out to long-on off Basharat’s bowling for 23 off just 19 balls, and when Ian Bullock (20) was lbw to Sahil Mahmood trying to sweep, Bromyard were 80 for 4 after 20.1 overs. That became 82 for 5 in the 26th over when the skipper John Parker (2) mis-timed a drive and was caught at mid-off from the bowling of Basharat.

Greg Leighton and George Bouston added some valuable runs for the 6th wicket, once Sahil Mahmood had finished an exceptionally accurate spell of 10 overs, 7 maidens, 2 for 8, and having taken 39 balls to get off the mark Leighton’s innings got going with some typically well-hit drives down the ground. George Bouston was bowled by former Leamington Spa off-spinner Nabeel Asghar for 17 to make it 129 for 6 in the 41st over, and with his eye now well and truly in Greg Leighton began to dispatch some big hits all around the ground. The former skipper reached his fifty, his 12th for the 1st XI in the WCL, before being caught at long-on off the bowling of Ravin Lokenath for 54 off 78 balls, with 4 fours and 4 sixes. By then Bromyard were 161 for 7 in the 46th over, and Hugo Bernard-Pullen (5) and Dave Taylor (0) both lost their wickets in the pursuit of quick runs, before last man Max Rowley added a valuable 21* off just 14 balls, with 2 sixes, including a big hit off the very last ball of the innings, which was pulled high and wide of long-on off the front foot. Bromyard thus closed their 50 overs on 189 for 9, four bowlers taking 2 wickets apiece for Redditch.

In reply Oliver Mason (2) tried to pull a Ryan McCarron delivery in the very first over but lobbed a catch to George Godsall at short extra cover. With the 18-year-old Aussie building up a good head of steam McCarron had Yassar Altaf, who scored a ton in the corresponding fixture at Redditch last season, lbw for 1 and when the dangerous Adeel Sajid (5) tried to launch McCarron down the ground and lost his leg stump, Redditch were 30 for 3 in the 9th over. However the home side’s own Australian, the diminutive Ben Tredget, was looking solid and playing the pull and cut strokes well, and with experienced left-hander Nabeel Asghar joining him at the crease the two put the innings back on an even keel.

With George Bouston and Dave Taylor bowling accurately but without reward, Redditch moved on to 88 for 3 at the 25 over mark. It took a bit of eagle-eyed wicket-keeping from Ian Bullock, removing the bails after Nabeel Asghar had missed a forward defensive but left his back toe on the line, to make the next breakthrough, Asghar being stumped off Taylor’s bowling for 40 to make the score 104 for 4 in the 30th over. Nick Leighton’s medium pace was pressed into action again for the ‘death overs’ and he had the big-hitting Rizwan Chaudry (9) well caught at deep mid-wicket by Hugo Bernard-Pullen from a full toss, to make it 124 for 5. With the returning Ryan McCarron knocking another leg stump out of the ground after Haleem Basharat (7) attempted a big hit, Redditch slipped to 135 for 6 in the 39th over, and then 141 for 7 after 42 overs when Haris Ali Mohammed (5) unwisely took on George Godsall’s arm going for a second run.

Ben Tredget was still there though, and was fortunate to survive a couple of dropped catches of varying difficulty, in the latter stages of his innings. With Ryan McCarron having completed an excellent 10 overs with figures of 4 for 24, Greg Leighton returned to the attack in his place from the Pavilion End, and had Tredget caught down the legside for a mature knock of 82 off 121 balls, with 9 fours. That made the score 163 for 8 in the 45th over, but two balls later Leighton was out of the attack after sending down a third ‘beamer’ of the innings, due to suffering from a damaged thumb on his bowling hand. With Bromyard’s four main bowlers now all either bowled out or banned from bowling, Redditch’s tail-enders went on the attack and added the remaining 22 runs in 2.3 overs, Ravin Lokenath making 18* and Waqas Ali 9*, as the home side reached 190 for 8 after 46.5 overs for a very nervy two wicket win. Bromyard are now in joint 8th place in the WCL Premier Division, and host 4th-placed Astwood Bank on Saturday.

The 2nds meanwhile enjoyed an excellent win over former table-toppers Old Vigornians 2nds at home. Thanks to our new 2nd XI correspondent Nathanael Newitt for the following match report:

Bromyard 2nd XI acquired their first win of the season at home against top of the table Old Vigornians 2^nd XI. After being told we couldn’t practice on the practice wicket, somebody won the toss (probably them-correct) and we ended up batting first. Jack Barrett, returning from the firsts, looked very comfortable against some good opening bowling, moving fluently to 12, before some suspect calling from Dan Mills had him run out by an impressive direct hit at the bowler’s end. At this, his Dad predictably pronounced that it was “brainless” and ‘what a waste of a wicket but oh well, at least I can go home.’ On the back of 61 last week, Jamie Rawle one again timed the ball well from the start of his innings and benefited from his positive intent, hitting his first senior six off his legs into the school. He soon brought up another half century before I gave him out caught behind off Ahsan Nawaz Fiaz for 53 (I was later informed that he didn’t hit it). This brought Mike Reece to the wicket and the run rate continued to increase. A flurry of hard earned boundaries from Dan Mills levelled his score with the overs count before he selflessly ran himself out for 25 to bring James Godsall to the crease. Mike Reece hit 3 splendid sixes on his way to 46 off 33 balls, when he was bowled by a ball from George Hayward-Meek that kept low and cut back in. During his innings Mike Reece also passed the milestone of 5000 runs for Bromyard 2nds in the Worcestershire League, the first player to do so. Luke Johnston (1) followed soon after, caught and bowled, but Edward Reece (24 off 22) and James Godsall (60 off 53, his 3rd fifty for the 2nds) put on 55 in 7 overs as Bromyard added 85 runs in the last 10.

Chasing 242 to win, Old Vigornians started solidly, Rob Lanchbury-Thomas (12) looked good before falling to some excellent bowling by Will Tanton (9 overs, 1 for 27) and a game of pass the parcel in the slip cordon. Fellow opener Tony Meek was told by Dan Mills, after an LBW shout, that ‘jumping up and down like that’ didn’t constitute playing a shot. Jamie Rawle found some surprising bounce on a fairly low pitch and had the opposition captain Tom Benham caught at short midwicket for only 7. After a slow start, the dangerous Rizwan Ashraf accelerated the scoring drastically with 57 off 34 balls with 6 enormous sixes, 5 of them in the space of about 10 balls off Ed Reece. However, after a few tight overs from Dan Mills, depriving him of the strike, Jack Barrett and Will Bolton combined to run him out, given out by an impressively good and amiable neutral umpire (I think he just decided to turn up but I could be wrong). Shortly after, Dan Mills (9 overs, 1 for 28) bowled opener Tony Meek for 34 off 95 balls and a win was looking possible with the required run rate climbing. George Hayward-Meek batted fluently, scoring 20 off 26 balls before he was bowled by myself with a rather mediocre long hop on my first ball.

With the required run rate over 10, it was still quite hard to conceive that Bromyard were actually going to win the game, especially when Will Bolton decided not to run an OV’s batsman out when he was well short of his ground after running 2. Will Yarnold (4 overs, 2 for 13) put the game to bed and Will Bolton regained his keeping credit when Ahsan Nawaz Fiaz was caught behind for 16 by a brilliant one handed reaction catch. With Andrew Tromans on strike, Will Bolton wrongly assumed that it was a free hit and declined to take the bails off, though he was many furlongs out of his crease. I then had Andrew Tromans (12) caught and bowled and Will Yarnold had his second when Will Bolton managed to stumped Phil Mackie (2), who’s leg Jamie Rawle had almost removed with a sweetly struck slog-drive. In between the bails being removed and the finger being raised, Luke Johnston could be heard complaining about the sluggishness of Will’s hands. Luke then caught Tim Race (3) off my bowling to end the game (Bromyard winning by 68 runs and Nat Newitt taking 3-13 from 5.1 overs), but was appalled by the arctic temperatures of the showers in the changing rooms. Overall, a great win for the Yard and we’re off the bottom of the table. The 9th-placed 2nds travel to 5th-placed Enville 2nds in WCL Division 6 on Saturday.

The 3rds spent another afternoon chasing leather, away at Hallow Taverners, but responded with another good batting display, the centrepiece of which was a superb 113 from their vice-captain Dean Corbett. Batting first after winning the toss, Hallow piled up 310 for 2 from their 45 overs, their skipper Ben Ratcliffe scoring 102 with 15 fours and 2 sixes, his opening partner Lee Shuck making 96 with 14 fours and a six, and Dave Shuck making 56* with 2 fours and 6 maximums. 15-year-old Chrissy Brown was the pick of the Bromyard bowlers with 9 overs, 0 for 28.

In reply the experienced Paul Tomkins was moved up to open the batting and scored 33, and youngsters Chrissy Brown (24) and Oli Bouston (23) both batted well, but Dean Corbett dominated the innings with 113 including 16 fours and 2 sixes, his first hundred for the 3rds and second for Bromyard, following a ton for the 2nds in 2010, adding 67 for the 8th wicket with youngster Zain Zahid, who made a stoic duck. Bromyard were eventually all out for 241 after 44.2 overs to lose by 69 runs. The 9th-placed 3rds host 8th-placed Eastnor 2nds in WCL Division 9 South at the QE on Saturday.

Finally the Evening League team began their season on Monday night, at home to Malvern Artefacts. To appease some of the neighbours all of the bowling was from the far end of the ground, and the match went off without a hitch, the visitors being restricted to 114 for 5 from their 12 8 ball overs after they’d won the toss and chosen to bat, James Arnold leading the way with 40* off 34 balls. In reply after the early loss of Nat Newitt (1) Dean Corbett continued his good form with 46* off just 33 balls, Jack Barrett struck a hard-hit 36, and John Parker made 18* as Bromyard eased to 118 for 2 after 9.5 overs, in murky light. The Evening League team travel to the Cinderella Ground in Worcester to take on new side ‘Young Gunz’ next Tuesday night.

Next Thursday night the Under 15s begin their season, at home to Bartestree & Lugwardine.