Old Down take seven wicket hit (From Gazette Series)

Old Down take seven wicket hit

12:00pm Friday 29th July 2005 in Sport

Bristol and District League Division One Old Down 1st XI v Cleeve

OLD Down suffered more disappointment last Saturday when they suffered a seven wicket defeat at the hands of Cleeve.

Cleeve won the toss and asked Old Down to bat first. Openers Gavin Clifton and Tom Perkins reached 25 without alarm, when Perkins was surprised by one from Dent which nipped back to trap him lbw for 17. Dent then struck twice more, bowling Andy Birtle (0) and Clifton (9).

A partial recovery was effected by Mike Rowen and Greg Welsher, who progressed the score to 60, when Rowen was caught at the wicket off Hoffeldt for a typically hard hit 23 (five fours). Matt Snell joined Welsher at the wicket and the pair proceeded to repair the innings.

Both mixed watchful defence with attractive strokes, Welsher reaching his 50 from 65 balls and Snell following him soon afterwards from 85 balls.

Unfortunately Snell sacrificed his wicket three balls later in an attempt to accelerate the score further, however the partnership of 117 was invaluable to Old Down's cause.

After adding a further 35 runs with Russell Knight, Welsher's 91 run innings was only ended by a sharp piece of fielding from Cleeve which ended in an unnecessary run-out. He faced 91 balls in all with 11 fours and three sixes and has rarely batted better.

Knight and Dave Gardner both finished four not out as the Old Down innings ended on 220-6 from their 40 overs. Dent bowled with hostility in taking 3-76 and Hoffeldt with good control in his 2-59.

Cleeve soon lost Elswood (0) in reply, bowled by Maunder, but Burrell had a life when his edge to the wicket-keeper was missed by the umpire and this allowed his partnership with D Carpenter to prosper.

Carpenter was twice missed and had reached 49 when clean bowled by Welsher, followed shortly after by Burrell (47) who was excellently caught by Birtle from Dave Buckley's bowling.

Cleeve were 120-3 at this stage and still had work to do, but Hoffeldt and M Carpenter went about it in exemplary fashion, despite Hoffeldt surviving a confident lbw shout off Buckley early in his innings. They put pressure on the Old Down fielders with excellent running and when in sight of victory finished the match with a flurry of boundaries, Hoffeldt finishing 54 not out and Carpenter 48 not out when the target was reached.

The Old Down bowlers stuck to their task well, with Maunder taking 1-30 from seven overs, while Welsher and Buckley bowled 13 over spells, taking 1-73 and 1-78 respectively. Gardner was particularly tight in his early spell finishing with 8-3-33-0, while the out cricket was once again solid on a lightning fast out-field.

However the injured Andy Rowen was missed and in truth Old Down did not have much luck with a couple of umpiring mistakes and the task of repairing the damage of 60-4 meant that they were probably 30 runs short on a fine pitch.

It subsequently transpired that Mike Rowen kept wicket with a broken thumb suffered in his dismissal earlier in the match.

It looks like it could well be a patched up side that travels to Hengrove on Saturday as Old Down attempt to halt their slide.

Old Down 220-6 (45 overs) 6pts, Cleeve 222-3 (41 overs) 24pts.