Bedminster Cricket Club Sponsored By: Club Info Statistics Members Misc Chipping Sodbury 2nd XI vs. Bedminster 2nd XI Played at The Ridings on Saturday 14th May 2005 Following a thumping win over local rivals Long Ashton, the Bedminster show went on the road, visiting last years joint league leaders Chipping Sodbury. The sun and wind were again in residence. The visitors line up showing one change, Dan Bryant returning for Luke Bowden. With Paul Pillinger continuing his run of failures at the toss, Sodbury elected to bat first. Given the choice of ends, Chris Bailey bizarrely chose to come up the hill into the teeth of the strengthening wind, much to the relief of Kevin Moore who began with a maiden. The lightening fast outfield helped the Sodbury score to get away with edges aplenty whistling to the boundary. Moore though was rewarded for bowling a consistent line, castling Rendall for 13 with the total on 28. Moore followed up that success soon after having Hobbs (13) caught by Pillinger at cover. Graham and Doidge then started to build ominously for the home team, advancing the score to 93-2 with drinks fast approaching. Moore then completed a three card trick of the top order by removing Graham for 33, clean bowled trying to pull one which skidded through. In the following over top scorer Doidge fell 2 short of his half century. A misread googly, a missed cut shot, a pair of bails falling to the turf and ‘Zulu’ was on his way. Having looked well set for a score of 250 plus, the match was back in the balance with drinks taken at 100-4. Suitably refreshed the visitors began to turn the screw. Wickets fell at regular intervals as MacBean whittled out the middle order, ably assisted by a smart catch from keeper Barnes attempting to go up and stay down in the same movement. With Moore taking a break after 13 overs on the spin, Bryant was introduced to the attack and maintained an aggressive line, the ball whistling past the bat on a number of occasions to thump into the keeper’s gloves. Sam Knapp, given the unenviable task of bowling the last two overs from the top end maintained a good line and length to restrict the late charge for runs. Bailey returned from the bottom end to bowl the final over with MacBean having bowled out. He bowled Wakefield for 30 to leave Sodbury nine down, but a run out shambles meant that Bedminster were unable to bowl their hosts out. The final total a distinctly light looking 185-9. Knowing that a solid start was required, Weeks waited all of four deliveries before deciding to launch Forrester away for the first boundary. With both he and Pillinger taking advantage of the quick outfield and some decidedly friendly bowling the score motored along to 27 in only the fourth over. The pair’s second consecutive 50 partnership came up in the 8th over, one ball slower than their effort the previous week. Weeks continued to display his usual repertoire of delicate nudges and nurdles and Pillinger joined in the fun, striking four boundaries in 47 balls before deciding to loop up at gentle catch to point for 37. The partnership worth 88 from 16.5 overs. Having become becalmed after reaching his first fifty of the season Weeks began to lay about him with 39 runs coming from only 19 deliveries. At this stage Bedminster number 10 Bryant decided to take a shower and the wheels fell off the visitors reply in spectacular fashion. Weeks started the rot by inexplicably dollying a catch back to the bowler for 86 (after several beers and much later argument and advanced maths this became 92, when a missing maximum was eventually uncovered). The Bedminster middle order then did a convincing impression of a wrack of rabbits with Barnes, White, Ireland and Knapp mustering the princely total of 4 runs between them and lasting 13 balls. The score sliding from 149-1 to 167-6. With confusion reigning in the away dressing room MacBean joined Brown, who had maintained a not uncommon look of bemusement throughout, at the wicket. With next man Moore pacing the sidelines, the pair steered Bedminster towards victory. Brown finished matters with four through midwicket to start the celebrations. Bedminster running our winners by 4 wickets with 10 overs to spare. A bag of 25 points to continue the winning start to the season. Chipping Sodbury 2nd XI: 185-9 (45 overs) Doinge 48 MacBean 15-2-50-5, Moore 13-2-54-3 Bedminster 2nd XI: 187-6 (35 overs) Weeks 92 (79 balls, 14 × 4, 1 × 6), Brown 37* (57, 5, 0), Pillinger 36 (47, 4, 0) Graham 4-45 Bedminster (25 points) beat Chipping Sodbury (8) by 4 wickets