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Doctors
beat Pacemakers by 23 runs
Doctors 212
for 8
Pacemakers 189 all out
The match was played on the beautiful Bridgetown ground
but was blighted by persistent heavy rain which made the pitch sticky and the
ball greasy.
Pacemakers gained an early advantage as C.Langdon (2-32) made the ball
shoot off the wet wicket to claim two early victims and Matthew House was
unluckily run out. Keith Powell struck
the ball towards the midwicket boundary and both batsmen thought that the
ball had crossed the line. House was
making his way back to the non-strikers end when the ball was returned and
the wicket was put down which made him unfortunate but out. Powell and Paddy MacLennan made good the
loss with an excellent stand of exactly 50, notable for some high-class pull
shots. MacLennan (29) fell to an
excellent shot off N.Smyth (1-32) which soared toward the pavilion only to be
intercepted by a one-handed salmon leap by Langdon. Powell and Andrew Paisley kept up the
momentum in the face of good, tight spin bowling from Alex Penn and Peter
Sprague but when Powell (36) was bowled by Penn (1-32) and Paisley (16) was lbw to
Sprague (1-28) Doctors had slumped to 130 for 6 and were in danger of
underachieving. Sam Powell (56) and
Charles Macadam dispelled the worries with a fine stand of 52 in which
resolute defence was laced with a mixture of delicate and powerful scoring
shots. Powell’s display of
forceful cover driving came to a sad end when a wide legside ball from Andrew
Clark hit his pads and trickled onto his stumps. Clark (2-29) then removed Macadam (13) through a James Murdoch catch
but there was time for captain Phil Barker (18 n.o.) to take his team past
the two hundred mark.
Penn made a statement of intent in the first over with an exquisite
pull for 6 off Sam Powell but then illustrated the dangers of cross batted
shots on damp wickets with an attempted repeat off an altogether faster ball
which found the hands of Keith Powell at mid on. Powell (1-22) and House (1-10) made life
awkward for the batsmen and House clean bowled V.Chambers which left Clark and D.Botha little
choice but to retrench. With the
batsmen declining risks and change bowlers Bertie Broughton and Peter Reed
bowling a good line and length a stalemate ensued and with 20 overs remaining
Pacemakers needed 150 more runs. The
breakthrough came when Reed effected a good pick up and throw at short
midwicket to run out Botha (31) and a bowling change brought on Barker (1-8)
to dismiss dangerman Murdoch thanks to a superb diving catch at extra cover
by House. Clark went on to a well deserved
half century. He had eschewed his
usual aerial driving but with his score on 52 the need to push on lured him
into a cover drive off Broughton which was caught by Barker. Langdon (44) replaced him and hit a barrage
of shots into and over the river on the boundary but, having hit Broughton
(2-28) for two sixes in an over, the temptation for a third was too much and
he lost his middle stump. Jeremy Budd
(2-7) took two wickets including a very sharp caught and bowled and
thereafter only A.Nash (12) reached double figures as the wizardry of
MacLennan (3-17) did the rest
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