West of England Premier League Prem 2 Glos/Wilts

Thornbury 178 ao lost to Cheltenham 292-8 by 114 runs

THORNBURY remain rooted to the foot of the West of England Premier League Prem Two Glos/Wilts division after a fourth defeat of the season.

They entertained a strong Cheltenham side who are top of the table and the visitors won the toss and elected to bat first.

So a few quick wickets were needed for Thornbury to try and reduce Cheltenham to a score below 250.

The innings did not get off to a great start with Cheltenham’s Kieran Smith dropped at first slip whilst on eight runs, a drop which later proved pivotal.

Credit must go to Cheltenham’s opening batsmen who were manipulating the field well and scoring runs at will.

Both scored hundreds, Smith scoring 103 and Haworth scoring 102 respectively.

Their opening partnership was worth a huge 219, and when Haworth fell shortly after reaching three-figures, after being caught by Colin Blick on the long-on boundary off the bowling of Josh Morris, Cheltenham would have been hoping to amass a score in excess in 300.

However that was not the case, with wickets falling at regular intervals.

After laying such a strong platform, the Cheltenham batsmen had a license to play attacking shots, yet that attacking mindset proved to be their downfall, stumbling to a still above-par score of 292-8.

Harry Wormwell picked up three wickets, while there were two apiece for Josh Morris and Luke Franklin and one for Richard Trotman.

Thornbury opened up with Marcus Wormwell and Kyp Bridgen, knowing that staying with the required run-rate was imperative from the outset.

The innings, though, did not get off to the greatest of starts, with Kyp Bridgen falling for two, Neil Stovold for ten and Luke Davis for a duck, leaving Thornbury reeling on 31-3.

This left Marcus Wormwell and Colin Blick at the crease with a lot of work to be done.

They managed a partnership of 42, before Wormwell was stumped trying to take the attack to the bowlers, for a cultured 27 runs.

Danny Slade was the next to go for five, after driving a full toss to mid-off, and Sam Summerfield scored four before he was caught, with nobody managing to stick around with Blick.

The next two wickets fell for 12 runs, as first Blick was caught for an enterprising 48 off 47 balls, featuring ten fours and Wormwell was caught for two.

This left Richard Trotman and Josh Morris at the crease and finally Thornbury saw a notable partnership.

They managed to muster up 58, earning Thornbury a few batting points. Trotman was the main contributor as he hit two fours and five sixes to liven the mood.

However, the fun was over when Trotman was bowled for 44 and he was soon followed by Morris, who clearly had enough of blocking and deciding to go after the spinners, but not to great success as he was stumped for six.

It left Luke Franklin stranded on one.

It was another defeat and means Thornbury are still searching for that all-important first victory which, they hope, will now come away at Warminster on Saturday.