A rare, sunny afternoon at Norton Hill saw the Methodists entertaining a youthful Frenchay Thirds side – both teams looking for their fourth league win of the season.
The visitors batted first, but lost Captain, Nigel Patterson, before a run was scored, and shortly afterwards were 8–2, as fellow opener, Simon Bliss, unluckily picked out the safe hands of Craig Eyles.
Number three batsman, Randall Taylor, signalled his intent with a huge six off his first ball from Daniel Shearn and proceeded to hit several more boundaries in a breezy innings of 23, before Shearn (2–29) ended his short stay.
Frenchay’s middle-order of Joe Moss (19), Josh Tiley (22), Matt Curnock (26) and Utsav Oza (28) all got good starts – Curnock and Oza adding 55 for the sixth wicket – but the Methodists broke their partnerships on a regular basis; Captain Stuart Green (2–19) maintaining the pressure on the visitors. But once again it was the bowling of David Baker which made the difference – his vital 5–16 finishing Frenchay’s innings on 139 after 38.5 overs and setting the Methodists a chaseable target of 140.
After tea, the Methodists’ innings also got off to a shaky start; losing a wicket to a run-out with just three runs on the board. Oza and Moss bowled tidily in tandem for the first twelve overs, claiming a wicket apiece, before Curnock (3–40) then began causing problems. Most of the Methodists’ batsmen were only able to hang around briefly, meaning that the bulk of the scoring was left to the in-form Alex Nash, who was regularly finding the boundary in his customary style.
His knock of 61 came in good time and took the score into three figures, and when he departed in the 27th over, just 33 more runs were required. These were finally knocked off by Green (25*) and Eyles with 6.4 overs in hand, to give the Methodists what seemed, in the end, a fairly comfortable four-wicket win – but the home team’s brittle batting will need to fire in the future if the
Norton side are to keep winning matches.
Daniel Shearn