MIDSOMER NORTON 162 WINTERBOURNE 106
Following Friday’s heavy rain, the toss was always going to be a key factor in this third-vs second-place clash at Withies Lane. Midsomer Norton lost and were immediately inserted by second-in-the-League Winterbourne.
With the huge advantage of bowling first on a wet wicket, Winterbourne wasted no time in removing Midsomer Norton’s top order batsmen. With the ball stopping and seaming around, the visitors’ opening bowler, Blake, dismissed the first six Norton batsmen to leave the home team in all sorts of trouble at 35-6.
The Winterbourne fielders backed up their bowlers with some excellent ground fielding and some very good catches, and the visitors looked like they were going to run through the Norton batting line-up until Captain, Martin Cox (50), and Josh Sutton (62) batted with extreme care and caution. They sensibly rebuilt the Norton innings and added 112 on the drying wicket, taking Norton to a respectable total of 162 all-out; the innings ending in the fiftieth over.
After the break, as the wicket continued to dry, Winterbourne set about chasing down Norton’s score. For Midsomer Norton, Jon Harvey took the place of John Carroll (injured the previous week) behind the stumps and took two catches and a stumping. Winterbourne’s openers put on 33 before Gary Filer dismissed both to leave the visitors 50-2. The introduction of Paul Robbins (2-21 in ten overs) and Jake Rowe (2-18 in ten overs) into the bowling attack started to turn the game Norton’s way.
Josh Sutton backed up his batting performance with a wicket in his seven overs which went for 14 runs, and Nick Pang bowled five overs in which he took three wickets for only five runs to clean up the tail and bowl-out Winterbourne for 106 and claim the extra two bowling points. Norton’s performance in the field reduced Winterbourne from 76-3 to 106 all-out – seven wickets falling for just 30 runs.
A tremendous comeback from the Norton team, who showed some incredible resistance and fought so hard to beat a very good Winterbourne team, and in doing so, leap-frogged their opponents into second spot in the League. Having won seven in a row, the club visit North Perrott this Saturday, 24th August; the game starting at 12.30 p.m.
There is no cricket at Withies Lane this weekend as the club prepares for the Outfield Music Festival on Sunday. On Saturday, the Second XI fixture against Backwell Flax Bourton starts at 1.30 p.m., and is being played at Chew Magna. The Third XI have an away game at Alveston, which starts at 1.30 p.m.
Charlie Matthews