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Doctors beat Bridgwater Solicitors by 123 runs


 

Doctors                        263 for 8

 

Solicitors                      140 all out

 

  Doctors’ openers were the Cannington surgery duo of John Ogle and Charles Macadam and they did their side proud with a sparkling stand of 50 in the first 10 overs.  The Solicitors’ catching was fallible until Steve Jenkins came on to bowl and took a sharp return catch to dismiss Macadam (13) and then removed Ogle for a well crafted 27.  Retrenchment was needed as Jenkins and Steve Hurford combined well in an accurate off spin partnership and Andrew Paisley and Graham Fergusson eschewed risk and confined themselves to singles and twos.  Jenkins was not to be denied and a fuller ball trapped Paisley lbw and then claimed another victim in an impressive spell of 4 for 48.  Harry Lee (10) kept Fergusson company until he chipped Simon Brown (1-32) tamely to Wayne Pither at short extra cover but by now Fergusson was moving up through the gears and found an able ally in Ed Johnson.  The Solicitors’ bowlers seemed intent on feeding Johnson’s favourite pull shot and he had rattled along to 31 when he was bowled by R.Parsons (1-22).  Hurford (2-36) came back to take two deserved wickets but by now nothing could stop Fergusson and every bowler felt the force of his onslaught as he flayed the ball to all corners of the ground.  Only the close of the innings saved them from further punishment as Fergusson finished with 133 not out, an innings of the highest class.

 

  The Solicitors were faced with an all spin opening attack from Lee and Robert Seymour.  Lee bowled exceptionally well without any reward, despite a succession of heartrending lbw appeals that left the umpire unmoved.  Seymour engaged in a fascinating duel with his erstwhile Spaxton CC colleague Pither which the batsman looked to be winning hands down with three sixes and three fours until the bowler’s guile led to a splattering of the stumps that left the contest even.  Pither’s 44 came from just 14 scoring shots and propelled the visitors way above the asking rate but his fall was closely followed by that of Dan Pawson (11) who top edged Seymour (2-37) to Ogle at square leg.  Hurford and Jenkins then played comfortably until the advent of Richard Purchase, playing his first game for Doctors for 7 years, who bowled the spell of the day: 5 overs 2 wickets for 9 runs.  He took a fine, diving caught and bowled to dismiss Hurford and ended Jenkins’ fine innings of 26 with a fine nick to keeper Fergusson.  If there had been any doubt about the man of the match Fergusson ended it with a great catch standing up to Mike Smart to remove Nick Foulkes (12) and Smart (2-24) and Peter Reed (1-8) then made further inroads into the middle order.  There was time for Richard Budd (1-11) to bowl a bewitching spell of left arm wrist spin, rewarded with the richly deserved wicket of M.Jones clean bowled, as he and fellow wrist spinner Paisley (2-13) mopped up the tail.