Glos County League Division Two

Oldlands 200ao beat Thornbury 2nds 146ao by 54 runs

OLDLANDS found themselves back on the winning trail in the Gloucestershire County League second division on Saturday with a convincing win against Thornbury seconds at Abwell.

Being invited to bat first, Oldlands were off to a blistering start with Kieran Price and Nick Grove reaching a fifty stand in the sixth over, when, after nine exquisite boundaries in a classy and aesthetically delightful innings of 38 from 25 balls faced, Price was caught behind off bat and pad.

Grove and Brad Thomas then took the score onto 108 before Grove was adjudged lbw for 26.

Although the flow of runs now began to be restricted, Thomas continued his great form of the summer, hitting a gorgeous straight six and eight boundaries in an excellent knock, before playing on for 61.

With a steady fall of wickets, the innings then fizzled out after the early promise, although the home side did manage to secure maximum batting points before the final wicket fell, getting a total of 200, which was probably a par score.

In reply, the visitors always found the early going tough against a testing home seam bowling attack of Dave Walton (3 for 23), Pete Waite (2 for 22), Dave Brookes (2 for 25) and Kieran Price (0 for 16).

However,at 126 for 4 there was still an outside chance of victory for Thornbury.

However, once 13-year-old opener Praneel Choughle, who had lead the way with a stylish 49, was caught by Thomas off the bowling of Steve Pennington (3 for 42), the final six wickets fell in a hurry for twenty runs and a twenty point victory was comfortably secured for Oldlands.