Premier promotion
Lansdown clinch spot in top flight
lansdown will play in west of england premier 1 next season after completing their titlewinning campaign with a flourish. Ilminster were hot on the tails of the Combe Park side entering the final weekend. But Lansdown paid no attention to the pressure as they dispatched third-placed Taunton Deane by eight wickets. The bowling attack that has been so impressive this season came to the fore once again, with five bowlers and a run-out sharing the wickets. Luke Williams’ 48 was the best Taunton could muster, with 39 more from Robert Woodman at the top of the order. For Lansdown, Josh Smith struck three times for final figures of 3-43. Tom Fogerty and Dominic Hooper took two each to continue the damage, while Louis Mancini and Matt Thomas both claimed one. Ryan Thorpe picked up the spare run-out on Williams. The response was completed without fuss, Jordan Smith (26) the first wicket to fall with the score on 84. Opening partner Thorpe bludgeoned his way to 90 from 76 balls but could not see out the title-winning display as he fell just 15 short of the target. Brandon Allen and Hooper finished off the victory with unbeaten tallies of 52 and nine respectively to seal Lansdown’s rise to the top tier of club cricket.
■ At the other end of the Premier 2 Bristol & Somerset table, Keynsham finished second bottom following a home defeat to Shapwick & Polden. It was the visitors that batted first, but held to 215-9 by Keynsham. They had been left 0-1 two balls in when Tom Bryan had Stephen Tinnion caught by Scott Tweedie. However, his opening partner, Sam Edmunds, struck 68 to anchor much of the innings, with 35 more late on from Ben Rudge securing a 200-plus total. Sam Wheller ended the day with 3-37 for Keynsham, all three important middle-order wickets. Bryan and Ben Clarke took two each. Though the Keynsham chase made a decent start with a 40-run stand, nobody could get the big score required to threaten. James Mitchell top-scored on 39 and though Chris Gwyther (26) and Richard Pannell (21) made good starts, none went on to take control.
■ Premer 2 Glos & Wilts saw Corsham finish up fourth having beaten Dumbleton by six wickets in their final outing of the season. While Tom Smith and Martin Roberts saw off the top three Dumbleton bats, Wade Ridsdale (40) and Tom Hage (62) soon had the visitors back on track. Up stepped late change bowlers Richard and Tom Foley. It was Tom that ended both Ridsdale and Hage’s innings in his spell of 4-47, while Richard finished with 3-47 to bowl out Dumbleton for 218. Corsham slumped to 7-2 in reply, before Sam Collier and Richard Foley (52) brought the innings forward. The former would remain unbeaten on 82, also batting alongside Adam Mitchell (50) in a successful run chase.
■ premier 1 Bath made sure of second place in the top flight by fending off Bedminster by seven wickets. It was the Swords that won the toss and chose to field, making plenty of early inroads and rocking Bedminster to 26-3. Max Tryfonos resisted with an innings of 32, before George Russell (40) and Tom Smith (54no) pushed the total on to respectability. Tom Pugsley tacked on a late 33. For Bath, Paul Muchall (3-43) and Tim Rouse (3-29) shared six wickets. Lloyd Davies nabbed 2-31 and Adam Kelly 1-47. Ben Ackland led from the front for Bath, putting on 73 from the top of the order. He teamed up with Ben Wells (81no) in a 123-run partnership but fell before the team got over the line, as Sam Young (3no) came in to help finish the job.
■ wiltshire division Marshfield finished second for the third straight season as their late bid for the title was not quite enough to overcome Chippenham. Only five points could separate the teams at the end of the summer, but Marshfield could have done little more in their victory over Corsham’s 2nd XI on Saturday. Jeremy Bond snagged 4-20 as Corsham were blown away for just 121. Lachlan Tyler and Tom Clist both finished with two wickets apiece, with 24 from Tom Abbott Corsham’s top score. It was not quite as simple a chase as Marshfield would have liked, but they nevertheless completed the win with four wickets in hand after a rapid 16.3 overs. Bond was the leading light again with a destructive 46 from 33 balls, Patrick Grieshaber also adding a quickfire 20 off ten. Luke Draper finished with 3-36 for Corsham, Sam Mitchell also taking 2-6 from a sole over.
■ Bristol & north som The Bath 2nd XI finished the season with defeat at home to Chew Magna. Up against it from the get-go, Bath had James Arney and his 44 runs to thank for helping them to a semi-respectable total. James Brown and Joe Prescott also hit 27 and 23 in the tail as Bath finished on 175 all out. Though Bath picked up five wickets when they came out to bowl, they could not remove Mike Denning before much of the damage had been done. His 91 was by far the best of the Chew bats, Charlie Thompson’s 30 the next best as the visitors successfully completed their chase.
■ timsbury There were huge celebrations in the Timsbury clubroom on Saturday night after the first team secured third place in the Bristol & District Senior Division and the second team had grabbed an improbable win away to league leaders BAC in Division 8 to earn a second successive promotion. The 1st XI, who took maximum points in their 149 run win at home to Nailsea, have to wait to see if they will go up to the West of England Premier League as a decision has not yet been made as to whether three teams are to be promoted. Nailsea, the early season pacemakers, have fallen away badly in the second half of the campaign and they were comprehensively outplayed on Saturday. After electing to bat first the home side were able to declare after 38.5 overs with 264 runs on the board. Mark Sage again led the way, missing out on a well-deserved century by just three runs to finish in the 90s for the third time this season. Kev Sibley continued his fine run with 45 and there were useful contributions from Adam Brinkworth (27) and Jon Strand (20). Sibley then turned bowler with figures of 4-24 and with Neil Hucker taking 4-17, Nailsea were dismissed for 115 in just over 29 overs. The 2nd XI produced their performance of the season to overhaul BAC’S total of 253-9 with nearly eight overs to spare. After a breezy start with a 20-ball 50 from Dan Hill and 44 from Andy Carter, Timsbury looked out of the game when they declined to 156-7, but a superb unbeaten eighthwicket stand between Neil Hulford (67no) and Ed Roberts (23no) carried them home for a famous victory and promotion. There was no happy ending to the season for Timsbury thirds, who were well beaten at home by Winterbourne fifths. The visitors made 233-8 and Timsbury were
bowled out for a mere 52. ■ bear flat A 27-run victory over basement club Box was not enough to save the Bears from relegation, with rivals Nationwide House defeating Winsley to guarantee their place at the top table of the Wiltshire League next season. Inwardly at least, the Bears were resigned to the loss of their Division 1 status due to Nationwide’s victory over Swindon the previous week, but nonehteless approached the encounter in good spirits. Batting first, the Bears amassed a competitive 204-3 from their 45 overs on a painfully slow pitch, exacerbated by a lack of pace on the ball after the opening burst from the visitors’ seamers. Mark Gunning capped a personally rewarding season with the bat with another half century (62), while fellow veteran Chris Bence plundered 84 as he too passed 500 league runs. After those two had departed it was left to the fluent Mike Smyth (31no) and Alex Woodward to ensure that maximum batting bonus points were secured. After the interval, Box opener Dave Crawford set about chasing down the total with gusto, but after George Ellis’s remarkable onehanded catch did for him the visitors’ innings lost much of its impetus; Shreyas (3-14) proving virtually impossible to get away. Some mid-order runs just about kept relegated Box in the game as the Bears bowlers attempted in vain to secure additional bonus points, but three wickets for Bence, two for Jay Morris and one for John Heywood ensured that a comfortable victory was ultimately completed with Box finishing on 177-9.
■ bath hospitals Eightwicket, half-centurion Rory Cadbury had himself quite the day as Hospitals overcame Wiltshire league Division 2 winners Beckington. Depite the early loss of Jon Fair LBW, Jake Dyer joined Toby Patrick and the duo took the game to Beckington. They put on a 74-run stand before Patrick was also trapped, with Dyer (30) following soon after. Div Puri held up one end as new batsmen Cadbury took over the mantle and cut loose at the Beckington bowling attack. A partnership of 65 accrued in nine overs before Puri was caught for 15. Andy Strange (7) and Rob Cooke (11) also fell with Cadbury departing in between the aforementioned for a majestic 52. The Hospitals had reached 190-8 when Dan Hatcher, batting at nine scored a quick-fire 28 before being caught leaving Billy Minchin and Jacob Cooper to add a few more runs to take the total to 225 all out. Fair struck first in the Beckington chase, tempting Rory Kelly out of this crease for stand-in keeper Puri to dislodge the bails for a fine stumping. Hatcher returned to the attack and took a wicket first ball to leave Beckington 77-2. Australian Mark Quimil and Charlie Rustell took to the challenge of acquiring the bonus points needed to at least secure the title. Hefty blows from both saw them muster a partnership of 66 before Cadbury had Rustell caught at midon by Stuart Webb-martin. Six runs later Cadbury tempted Quimil with a flighted delivery that saw a leading-edge pop in the air to see Puri take a simple catch. Then having passed the 100 runs for another batting point Cadbury struck twice in quick succession. Beckington reached 125-6 only to see Cadbury take their next four wickets as the visitors were skittled for 149. Man of the match Cadbury ended with figures of 8-0-38-8 in a quite magnificent effort. The end of the game saw a double celebration, as Beckington gained enough points to lift the title.