Gloucestershire County League Division Two

Cam 145 ao lost to Stone 146-6 by four wickets

CAM secured promotion back to Division One of the Gloucestershire County Cricket League, but were made to wait to claim the league title as a below par performance saw them fall to a four wicket defeat away to Stone.

After being asked to bat first in overcast conditions, Cam found the going difficult with runs hard to come by.

Ryan Western was bowled in the second over and was followed shortly after by Ben Holloway who skied a return catch to James Thomas for his second wicket.

Ryan Malpass and Alex Ballard also fell for single figure scores as the stone pair of Thomas and James Barnes made inroads into the Cam batting line-up.

Whilst wickets had been falling regularly, opening batsman Jake Dolbear had remained composed at the other end.

Dolbear found support in the shape of Ed Paddock who, in his first 1st team appearance of the season, made batting look easier than those before him as he began to score freely.

Dolbear played some nice strokes and had reached 55 before he was caught and bowled by Ian Hall to bring an end to the 79 run partnership.

This dismissal started a procession of wickets as Jim Seal was stumped before Paddock was unfortunate to be run out for 42 from just 47 balls. Cam’s lower order didn’t provide their usual resistance as only Pete Hall (10) reached double figures as their innings capitulated from 126-4 to 145 all out.

With a below par total on the board, Cam’s bowlers knew that they would have to take early wickets and limit scoring opportunities if they were to stand any chance of victory.

George Dolling and Alex Ballard shared the new ball for Cam and it was Ballard who found the early breakthrough as Adam Smith offered a simple return catch in just the second over.

Dolling followed this up soon after as he clean bowled the new batsman for a duck.

Ben Holloway got in on the action soon after as he dismissed Henry Ball thanks to a good catch by Tom Hancock, before the same fielder swooped and launched a superb throw from mid-off to run out Greg Allen for five.

With the score on 30-4, Cam sensed an opening, and things got even better as Pete Lavis was trapped lbw to Pete Hall for 11.

Soon after this, Alan Sherman gave Hall his second wicket as he skied a catch to Adam Philp in the outfield.

With the score now on 52-6, Cam were arguably favourites for victory.

This was as good as it got for the away side, however, as a partnership of 94 between Pete Booth (59) and Charles Ball (34) took Stone to their target.

Booth batted with great patience to begin with before turning aggressor as his side neared victory.

No matter what Cam’s bowling attack tried, the pair held firm and reached their target in the penultimate over.

The rare defeat for Cam leaves them just short of claiming the Division Two title, something they will want to put right as they welcome the visit of Cinderford St John on Saturday.

For relegation threatened Stone, the victory leaves them 14 points from safety and facing a trip to Tetbury, who they will know they must defeat if they want to leapfrog them out of the relegation zone.