Bank House Gloucestershire County League Division Two

Oldlands 133 (34.2) beat Poulton 72 (26.5) by 61 runs

FOLLOWING their opening day win at home to Thornbury Seconds, Oldlands travelled to Poulton last Saturday with a depleted side but returned with victory.

A superb all-round team performance saw them achieve what ultimately proved to be a comfortable 61-run win.

Losing the toss for the second successive week, the visitors were once again asked to bat first and, in bowler-friendly conditions, life was certainly testing for openers Brad Thomas and Doug Walton.

They applied themselves particularly well through the opening overs and were quick to seize the opportunity when a scoring opportunity did arrive.

One six off the back foot from Walton was particularly impressive on Walton’s way to 22, but following Nick Grove’s departure for 16 and Bobby Woolams for a duck.

Dave Brookes joined Thomas in what proved to be a match-winning stand of 71.

Continuing his good form from his half-century against Thornbury, Thomas superbly gave the innings a foundation, contributing another crucial innings of 44, while Brookes (31) also looked in excellent touch, with one huge six over mid-wicket, before being bowled.

The visitors lack of depth in batting was then exposed as the innings quickly subsided to 132 all out, at least 30 short of what would have been a par score.

If the Os were going to be in with any chance of a win defending such a modest total early wickets would be the order of the day and that was provided by Brookes who delivered an impressive six-over opening spell of 2-10, bowling home skipper John Maunder for a duck with a vicious inswinging yorker in the first over and then having the previous week’s centurion, Mark Burton, well caught behind by Woolams for 17.

With this lift, the visitors’ fielding was tight and enthusiastic, with particular mention for the committed efforts of Dave and Steve Allen and Jonty Gardner, and from that point on only veteran Graham Clarke provided any resistance as Thomas (1-25) and Steve Pennington (6-13) took Oldlands through to a memorable and well deserved victory as Poulton were dismissed inside 27 overs for just 72.