By Harry Watts

THORNBURY firsts headed to Wiltshire to face a Biddestone side that were lurking just one place below the visitors in the table, so a win was important to improve on the indifferent start to Thornbury’s season which had yielded just two wins out of six.

The visitors were welcomed by glorious conditions in Biddestone, so after winning the toss, captain Luke Davis happily chose to bat first. These were perfect conditions for batting which gave Thornbury the perfect platform to post a respectable total, something that hasn’t been achieved yet this year.

The innings got off to a perfect start, with Dan Davis hitting 18 off the first over, which looked to have set the tone for the innings. Opening partner Tom Bradley, who is starting to get more familiar with his new role in the batting order, adopted a more careful approach, allowing Davis to express himself.

Their partnership was broken with the score on 41 though, with Davis departing for 28 after a contentious LBW decision. After that, all the batsman made starts, but none were able to convert that into a substantial score.

Tom Bradley made 13, Josh Slade managed 14, Danny Slade departed for 13 and captain Luke Davis was dismissed for 20, with all batsman caught out, leaving Thornbury on 109-5 and in danger of not capitalising on the glorious batting conditions.

This brought Vishal Mamgai and James Tunnicliffe to the crease, who put on a handy 33-run partnership, with Vishal the enforcer and Tunnicliffe the aggressor, which helped steady the ship for the away side.

Tunnicliffe eventually departed for 28, after slicing a wide delivery that was caught. This brought Marcus Wormwell to the crease, who along with Vishal, ran very hard from the offset, which manipulated the field well.

It was easily Wormwell’s finest innings of the season, but he eventually departed for a run-a-ball 30, with Vishal still there on 26, which left Thornbury on 191-8.

After a handy end the innings, Thornbury finished on a competitive total of 214 all-out, with Vishal ending on 42*.

The second innings got off to a shaky start for Thornbury, with neither Tom Bradley nor Luke Franklin able to get fully into their rhythm, prompting a change to bring Tunnicliffe and Luke Davis into the attack. Luke Davis continued his fine form as of late to bowl Baker for 11, which put Biddestone on 38-1.

At the other end Tunnicliffe was struggling to get his line and length right, which was getting punished by other opening batsman Perry, leading to Tunnicliffe’s opening over going for 17 runs.

However, he bounced back well and trapped the dangerous looking Perry LBW for 46. By this point, Biddestone had already made 63 runs after just 11 overs, so Thornbury knew there was scope for improvement. Biddestone made it to 90, before Luke Davis had his second wicket, with Flynn departing caught and bowled.

For the rest of the innings, the fielding from Thornbury was outstanding in the heat, which meant that Biddestone failed to even put the bad balls away, which was a stark contrast from the opening 17 overs.

Wickets fell at regular intervals, with Luke Davis picking up a third and Jack Gillett managing to claim three victims, which left Biddestone on 122-7. The game may have seemed wrapped up, but after failing to wrap up victory from highly winnable positions against Cheltenham and Burbage & Easton Royal, this was far from over.

The eighth wicket partnership was worth 33, before Knight (29) picked out Tom Bradley at long on off of Danny Slade’s bowling.

Dan Davis bowled Khan for two runs, but Biddestone managed to take it to the final over, needing 20 runs for an unlikely innings. This week however, there wasn’t to be final wicket drama, with Josh Morris bowling Boulton from the first ball, which in-turn bowled Biddestone out for 194, meaning a much-needed 20-run victory for Thornbury was sealed.