Upwood C.C. vs Ashton Wold C.C. Sunday 6th July 2008

Damp day and Sunday Skipper Harry Chapman won the toss and bowled.
Chris Wood and Lloyd Papworth opened the bowling Chris bowled one of the Opening batsmen then quickly bowled the No.3 and finished his 1st spell of 6 overs 2-21. Lloyd bowled well the other end but with no luck and bowled 5 overs for 27. Nigel Barnes replace Lloyd and bowled superbly in his 8 overs 1-19 and restored some control as the Upwood batsmen seemed to be scoring freely. Dan Blatch replaced Chris and bowled a 6 over spell for 27 and took the wicket of the other opening Batsmen which was due mainly to Nigel bowling well and creating pressure at the other end. After Nigel and Dan had had a go Harry turn to the spin bowling department of Drew Buckley and Jack Allen who toiled away but runs were scored steadily and only 1 wicket taken by Jack and then after Dan bowling one over for 5 runs due to bowling restrictions, Harry brought on the opening bowlers again to finish up the Innings. Chris & Lloyd bowled exceptionally well and they both took a wicket and helped keep Upwood to 195-7 in 40 overs. 2 of the Upwood batsmen got 20`s and 3 of them got 30`s. Ashton's Bowling ~ C. Wood 3-31 off 8, L. Papworth 1-38 off 8, N. Barnes 1-19 off 8, D. Blatch 1-32 off 8, J. Allen 1-25 off 4, A.Buckley 0-24 off 3, S. Nowlan 0-15 off 2.
After a very nice tea Skipper Harry Chapman and fellow opening batsmen Richard Awdry walked out to start of the Innings. Rich did what he normally does and went after anything wide of the stumps from the word go! He belted a four through cover from the very first ball of the Ashton Wold Innings. Rich continued in this manner until he was bowled for 23. Sam Nowlan joined Harry and was only in for a short stay, after hitting a six over cover he got a short one which he top edged to square for 7. Marcus Papworth joined Harry and they proceeded to build up a partnership. When Harry was judged LBW, for 44, to the quickest of the Upwood bowlers M.Page they had taken Ashton to 139 and 5 runs an over was needed to get the win. At number 5 was Dan Blatch who watched Marcus take on the quick bowler and advance his score to 33 well made runs before he was caught at mid off. With Drew Buckley joining Dan at the crease Dan decided to get the score moving and belted a straight six and then was caught at square going for a sweep shot the following ball for 15. This left 2 new batsmen at the crease who hadn't faced a ball and the Middle order collapse was followed by a lower order collapse as Drew was caught at mid off for a duck and Jack Allen also got a duck caught by the wicket keeper.
Lloyd soon followed for a single figure score and then Chris Wood and Harry ( Batsmen of the year 2005 & 2006) Williams, the number 11 due to his long standing wrist injury found themselves at the crease with a few overs to spare and ruffly 20 runs needed. Chris quickly got himself 11 runs before Harry was run out for 2 with only 2 balls remaining, Ashton Wold were all out 8 runs short of the Target of 195. M.Page bowled well against Ashton Wold and picked up figure of 5-18, He and the young spin bowler Sayer took 7 wickets between them and can count themselves responsible for sealing the win for Upwood. Upwood bowling ~ J. Milner 1-35 off 8, M. Drage 1-23 off 6, R. Mitchell 0-10 off 4, Bower 0-21 off 4, R. Sayer 2-34 off 8, M. Page 5-18 off 5.4.
Ashton Wold lost their third game of the season by 8 runs.