On a fabulous, sunny day at Withies Lane, Midsomer Norton would have been hoping for a performance to match the glorious weather following last summer’s promotion-winning campaign, but it was not to be.
Midsomer Norton won the toss and put the visitors from Shapwick & Polden in to bat. The visitors’ opening pair put on 69 and at the drinks interval after 25 overs the score stood at 95-2, with the innings in the balance. Wickets fell at regular intervals and with the visitors at 133-6, the home side seemed to be in the ascendant, but runs kept coming as well. At the end of their fifty overs, Shapwick had reached 188-8. Skipper Nick Pang and Martin Cox were wicket takers but Chris Hampshire was the pick of the Norton bowlers ,with figures of 5-31.
After the tea break, Norton reached 32 before losing their first wicket, but wickets fell steadily from that point onwards; only one other partnership exceeded twenty runs and only three Norton players reached double figures.
The Norton innings was wrapped up in the 33rd over when the home side was all out for 97. This was not the desired start to Norton’s WEPL Premier 2 Bristol/ Somerset campaign, but there will hopefully be better things to come as the summer progresses. There is no league fixture for the First XI this weekend but they play Lansdown at Withies Lane on Monday evening in the Somerset Cricket Board Knockout Cup.
This Saturday, Midsomer Norton’s Second XI host Chew Magna at Withies Lane, hoping to build on last weekend’s victory by three wickets at Stapleton. The match starts at 1.30pm. The Third XI visit Old Bristolians and the Sunday XI visit Lansdown.
Charlie Matthews