Fighting Fairford into 2nd round of 'npower' Village KO
April rarely brings classic knock-out cricket
into our clubs but Fairford, entertaining Whitefriars and Charlton Kings,
were made to fight hard and battle all the way into the 2nd round. Twice
they had to find a way out of trouble by relying on discipline and years
of experience.
Good early season knocks from Gray, Townsend, Newport and Greener ensured
a reliable start to the Fairford innings - justifying the home side
choosing to bat after winning the toss - and fortune favored them as
6 catches went down in the first 30 overs. However, no one really looked
like going on to take charge and dominate the accurate swing bowling
especially from veteran seamer, Roberts. After 25 overs Fairford were
95 for 4 but when the enthusiastic Cook joined Clarke, a slightly more
urgent approach lifted the score with a partnership of 47 coming in
just 9 overs. Cook finishing on 40 not out from only 44 balls and ensuring
that a total of 183 would test the visitors.
Bird made a dream start with the new ball and 2 for 15 from 9 overs
ensured that Whitefriars were behind the clock early in their innings.
Wickets fell regularly and only Williams seemed capable of scoring in
front of the wicket with some powerful straight hitting. He made a deserved
55 and skipper White threatened with some big hitting until Newport
bowled him with his most penetrative delivery of the weekend. With a
gift of 35 extras Whitefriars were still in the hunt needing 13 to win
off the final 3 overs and with 3 wickets standing. Clarke however had
other ideas and removed Terry, Cage and Middleton in the space of 5
balls to finish with 4 for 23.
Fairford now have another home tie in the 2nd round this Sunday, against
Woodchester or Hanbrook, and will need all of the players to dig deep
into their reserves of availability to help skipper Leadbeater put a
strong side together to go further in this prestigious 'npower' competition.
The club is most grateful to all of its sponsors in particular to The
Old Police Station.
| Fairford C.Gray ct b Roberts 37 M.Leadbeater lbw b Pearce 4 D.Townend ct b Roberts 18 A.Newport ct b Roberts 23 M.Greener ct b Cage 21 G.Clarke ct b Pearce 18 M.Cook not out 40 P.Morris not out 8 E.Bird S.Williams C.Tye Extras 14 Total for 6 wickets 183 Pearce 2 for 35 Roberts 3 for 26 Cage 1 for 22 |
Whitefriars S.Page ct Gray b Townsend 15 D.Griffiths ct Newport b Bird 9 C.Mattos lbw b Clarke 0 A.Williams st Gray b Morris 55 T.Perkins b Bird 5 B.Roberts run out 6 G.White b Newport 33 D.Pearce not out 14 J.Terry b Clarke 0 S.Cage ct Bird b Clarke 0 C.Middleton lbw b Clarke 0 Extras 35 Total for 10 wickets 172 Bird 2 for 15 Clarke 4 for 23 Townsend 1 for 34 Morris 1 for 38 Newport 1 for 24 |
