Post date: Jul 13, 2015 9:02:00 AM
This week Bridestowe first team faced one of their lesser anticipated away days to the Babbacombe mountain pass. We were greeted by a rather keen looking warm up routine, whereas we preferred to scope the boulders on the outfield, and get in some pre-match boundary bowls. With a few players away including the skipper, Sam took over the reigns as captain. He lost the toss and the opposition captain Broad elected to bat first.
The Babbacombe innings started slowly, with numerous play and misses to the bowling of Tom and Dan Fogerty. Fryer eventually found the middle, and crashed a few shots nicely through the covers. It took the introduction of Khan to bring the first wicket, as he completely outfoxed Beech to bowl him for 15. Fryer and Kingdon looked a dangerous partnership, but Khan (2-11) soon had the latter caught by Dan at mid-off for 9. New man Pugh was very defensive to the accurate bowling of Khan and Lavis, and was content to let Fryer do all of the scoring. Fryer eventually departed for a well made 52, lbw to Lavis in his first over. Sam Ewen bowled a quick over to Broad which induced numerous swishes, before a loose over to Pugh was punished for 16. Lavis (2-42) soon had another wicket though, bowling the dangerous Broad. After drinks, Pugh and Powell looked to up the run rate; Powell was dropped twice and punished the visitors with 3 big sixes over midwicket. A much needed breakthrough came via a fantastic direct hit run out by Dan to remove Pugh for a patient 40, which, judging by his reaction, was a few short of his runs bonus payout. The last few overs by Sizmur and Dan were superb, and went at well under a run a ball. Sizmur (3-43) picked up a stumping and a couple of wickets caught, including one from the last ball of the innings. After looking set for a score of around 250, the Babbacombe innings limped to 200-8, which would still be a tough total to chase down.
The Bridestowe reply got off to a good start through Sizmur and Tom Fogerty until the latter was bowled by Goodwin (2-28) with the score on 18. That sparked a drastic collapse as, where the opposition had played and missed, Sizmur and James Ewen edged behind to the keeper. It was evident that the pitch had completely dried out over tea, making the home captains decision to bat a good one. Sam Ewen got a ball from Williams (2-10) which stopped in the pitch and came in to bowl him, and another held in the pitch as Hatton chipped one straight to cover. At 34-5 the visitors hopes of a win seemed extremely distant, but they have shown throughout the year that they bat all the way down. Khan was still there and was playing patiently, waiting for the bad balls to put away. Griffiths, promoted to the first team for the first time this year, played a great innings from number eight. He was solid in defence and also smashed three sixes off the spinners to get to 34 before he pulled a long hop to midwicket and was caught. Khan was unfortunate to be bowled by one which clipped the base of leg stump and flew down to fine leg after he had made 22. Dan Fogerty came to the crease and hit the biggest six of the day from a full-toss to take the score passed 100. After a few tight overs, 80 more were needed from the last 48 balls for an unlikely victory. Things got more difficult as Dan was caught at mid-wicket as he tried to find the boundary. Mark Fogerty continued patiently at the other end, and Pat Ewen smashed a few over the top to get the score over 125. Pat was looking to open up before he was run out, effectively ending the game as a contest. Fogerty and Lavis batted well to take the score to 150-9 for another batting point going in to the final over. Mark defended or left the first 5 balls from Kingdon and punched the last down the ground for 4 to finish 22no and deny Babbacombe the last bowling point. So a disappointing result for Bridestowe, with the top order not providing a good enough start on a tricky pitch.
The loss moves the Moorlanders down to second place, just one point behind new leaders Dartington and Totnes. Next week the first team are back at home against Yelverton.