Almonds fall after being so close to first win (From Gazette Series)

Almonds fall after being so close to first win

1:24pm Monday 23rd June 2008

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Bristol & North Somerset 1st XI; Hambrook (105 a.o) beat Almondsbiry (91 a.o) by 14 runs

ALMONDSBURY had victory snatched away from them on Saturday when they went down in a tight contest.

Greg Stephens started proceedings by winning the toss and inserting the home side, a decision that proved successful as Tommy Armfield removed Bryan Jater (0) in his first over.

Greg Stephens exploited the conditions well with his pace, and he soon removed Pete Wheeler with a delivery that reared up from a length and hit the batsmen under the helmet forcing him to fall back on his stumps.

The batsman was prostrate for a while but thankfully made a full recovery and was able to continue the match without any long lasting effects.

Meanwhile, Landge and Rutter took the home side past the fifty mark before the introduction of Phil Mortimore removed Landge for 36.

Steve Braund then joined the attack and together with Mortimore began to strangle the flow of runs from the Hambrook batsmen.

These two were well backed up by some tight fielding which in turn led to the home side being dismissed for 105.

Stephens (8-3-11-1), Armfield (7.1-1-27-1) and Braund (13-2-41-3) all bowled well but Phil Mortimore exploited conditions best returning figures of 12-6-21-4.

Almondsbury lost Thompson (0) early on and he was soon followed by Martin (13) and Goodwin (3) before skipper Stephens and Hartigan took the score past the 50 mark leaving Almondsbury in the driving seat.

However, a combination of reckless stroke play and tight bowling from Hambrook led to the visitors imploding, and they collapsed to 91 all out.

This defeat leaves Almondsbury with eight defeats from eight, and well anchored to the bottom of the table.

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