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Doctors lost to Pencombe by 158 runs Pencombe 292 for 5
Doctors 138
all out
Doctors thrashed Pencombe two weeks ago but were forced to take their own medicine in the return fixture at Taunton School. Pencombe chose to bat and lost their first wicket to Sam Powell with the score on 28. The next breakthrough was a long time coming as Owen Thomas and Stuart Barrett embarked on a stand of 129 with Thomas (129) exploiting the short boundaries in a masterclass of driving and pulling. It was a great relief to the home side when Powell (2-40) produced the ball of the day, a fast off cutter, to remove Thomas’ middle stump, but triumph was soon followed by disappointment when new batsman Alan Davies was missed at mid off with his score on 8. This was the turning point of the match as with Barrett dropping anchor Davies launched a furious assault on the bowling. Their stand was worth 79 when Barrett (37) was well stumped by Graham Fergusson off the deserving Phil Barker (1-69) and although Paul Troman (1-32) and Robert Colledge (1-44) made late inroads into the middle order Davies merely upped the tempo, taking 27 off the 37th over and finishing on 100 not out. Doctors thought that they had a good chance of chasing down the large target but this opinion lasted just 3 balls into the opening over from James Brown by which time the score was 0 for 2, including the crucial wicket of Fergusson who under-edged a wide ball into his stumps. This setback seemed to totally demoralise Doctors middle order which was blown away by Brown and Tom Smith on a still-excellent batting surface. Brown’s accurate inswingers earned the figures of 4 for 29 and the only batsman to look the part was Alex Troman who mixed watchful defence with scintillating strokeplay. His fine innings of 48 ended in anticlimax with a tame return catch to Smith (3-53) with the total on a miserable 84 for 8. Phil Barker (35) played well with the tail end batsmen to give Doctors a modest cloak of respectability until the innings was finished off by Mark Phelan and Phil Brook. |
