Gloucestershire County League - Division 2

Stone 1st XI v Frocester III

Stone continued their perfect start to the season last Saturday with an emphatic 10 wicket win against Frocester III at Swanley.

After last weeks' superb bowling performance, Stone Captain Al Sherman kept faith with his bowlers by asking the visitors to bat.

His faith was soon rewarded as Charlie Viney had early success when he trapped Steve Tegg LBW for five.

Pete Lavis (9-33-2) toiled at the other end, bowling with pace and accuracy but to no avail as Will Helmke and Ben Spyvee dug in to steady the Frocester ship.

With the score on 17 from 10 overs, Sherman turned to James Barnes who struck with his first delivery when he bowled Spyvee for one and joy turned to delight when Tony Clarkson was bowled for a duck two balls later.

The visiting captain, Ali Bray came to the crease with his side in all sorts of trouble and together with Helmke, set about repairing the early damage.

Viney continued to ask questions of the batsmen but with no luck and finished his spell with impressive figures of 8-1 off nine overs.

Gradually, the batsmen started to get the scoreboard ticking over, with Bray in particular punishing anything loose to the boundary and over the next 12 overs, brought up the 50 partnership.

Sherman turned to the wise head of Ian Hall (9-35-1) and after setting the perfect trap, had Helmke caught by Lavis for 24.

James Thomas (9-34-2) struck in the following over when he took a smart return catch to remove Roberts for a duck and bowled Partridge for eight in his next leaving Frocester on 82-6 with 15 overs remaining.

Mark Glew joined Bray at the wicket and played supporting role, allowing his captain to try and accelerate the scoring.

Both batsmen can be grateful to some questionable fielding as both were dropped as they looked to enhance their total, with Bray bringing up his 50 and a  late flurry of runs pushed the total beyond 150.

Barnes finally broke the 72 run partnership when he bowled Glew for 20 finishing with 3-43 from his nine overs.

Lavis was finally rewarded in the final over when he took two wickets in two balls leaving Frocester on 158 for 9 from their 45 overs and Bray an impressive 83 not out.

In response, the hosts reply started slow and steady as Lavis and Sherman seemed content to push the ball around into gaps, picking up singles where they could.

This seemed to frustrate the visitors as they tried to plug the holes, but clever thinking from both batsmen forced the opposition to chase shadows accelerating from 20 in seven overs to 53 from 12.

Bray started to make regular bowling changes to try and unsettle Lavis and Sherman but both remained focussed and started to open up their strokeplay.

The rewards for the pairs hard running came in the 22nd over when they passed the 100 partnership and Lavis brought up his second fifty in succession three overs later.

As the hosts edged closer to their target, Bray (to his credit) continued to make changes and nearly had a tiring Sherman caught in the deep but this only served to strengthen the home captains mindset and passed the Landmark of his maiden 50 for Stone.

Singles and two's were still aplenty but, with victory looming, both batsmen decided to cut loose.

The game was brought to a swift end with Lavis  finishing 72 not out and Sherman hitting the winning runs with a six over square leg to finish 63 not out, seeing Stone home to 162-0 but more importantly, 19 invaluable points to cement their place at the top of the league.

This week, Stone travel to Poulton who have also won their opening first three games, so this has to regarded as the toughest test of the season so far.