West of England Premier League
Premier Two
Thornbury 167-5 beat Goatacre 166 by five wickets
THORNBURY came into their match against Goatacre aiming to keep the pressure on promotion rivals Taunton and knowing that if certain results went their way, they could well be right on Taunton’s tail in the race for the title.
Thornbury won the toss and elected to bowl on a damp wicket where there appeared to be a lot of potential assistance.
Goatacre got off to the worst possible start, slumping to 7-3 off four overs, after Luke Davis (1-16) and brother Dan (2-34) ripped through the visitors’ top order early on.
After that, Marc Lezar (1-15) and Richard Trotman made further inroads, which subsequently reduced Goatacre to120-5.
The returning Josh Morris (3-23) came on and bowled very well to damage the middle order, and he was well supported by Trotman (3-26), who mopped up the tail as Goatacre were bowled out for 166 in 43.4 overs.
One of Trotman’s wickets came when tailender Kevin Iles (4) cut him to James Tunnicliffe who took a blinding catch at short gully, which was the eighth wicket of the day.
It appeared Thornbury wanted to replicate Goatacre’s start to the innings, finding themselves 16-3 early on.
Simon Hinks was out for five after missing a straight one, Dan Davis was out first ball after edging behind off spinner Iles and Marc Lezar (2) was caught at short-cover in the same over.
Luckily though for Thornbury, the middle order decided not to replicate Goatacre’s collapse, and saw Thornbury home.
Captain Trotman and Luke Davis (29) notched up a 54 run partnership, before the latter was caught behind of Giorgio Rigali.
Another 50 partnership came and went, when Trotman pulled a short ball straight to Wiseman at deep square-leg for a shaky 21 runs.
The winning partnership did not quite make it to 50, however, but Dan Lezar (54 not out) and Sam Summerfield (22 not out) still saw Thornbury home, avenging the defeat in the away match earlier in the season.
Special mentions go to Josh Morris, who returned to the first team after multiple weeks out through injury, and especially to Luke Messer who made his first-team debut today.
On Saturday, Thornbury host Keynsham, with only a win good enough if promotion is still to be a realistic target.