Bradford Town 1st XI (22 points) beat Burbage & ER 1st XI (6 points) by 68 runs.

Bradford Town continued their good start to the season by recording an excellent 68 run victory at Burbage. Stand in skipper Matthew Harrington won the toss for Bradford and elected to bat first.

The innings got off to a solid start with openers Clive Warren and Nick Gerrish taking advantage of anything loose to race to 35 for 0 off 7 overs.

Gerrish departed first for 11 and Adam Cooksey continued the good work with Warren and the score progressed to 53 for 1 from 15 overs.

Burbage then pulled the innings back, removing 5 Bradford batsmen in the space of six overs, Warren falling for 29, Cooksey 15, James Pike lbw for 0, Tony Laws caught and bowled for 7 and Paul Ashton for 0.

Four of these wickets fell to Tom Wallbridge who bowled an excellent spell of in swing bowling to take 4 for 21 from 11 overs. At 74 for 6 Bradford were in deep trouble.

However, the game swung back in Bradford’s direction when Matthew Harrington was joined by Kegan Smart at the crease and the pair kept Burbage’s bowlers at bay and accumulated runs for the next 20 overs, accelerating towards the end to produce an excellent 94 run partnership.

Harrington made 37 and Smart made 54 not out. The innings ended on 185 for 9 from 45 overs, an exceptional effort from a precarious position.

The Burbage reply started extremely slowly with opening bowlers Smart and Gerrish bowling superbly on a pitch offering assistance to good length bowling. Gerrish was keeping it extremely tight at one end, while Smart was delivering wickets – both being backed up by some outstanding ground fielding from the Bradford side.

Both opening bowlers completed their 12 over allocation and left Burbage reeling on 73 for 6, Smart returning 4 wickets for 42 runs and Gerrish 2 wickets for 24 runs, with 7 maiden overs. Bradford’s strength of bowling depth then paid dividends with the victory being wrapped up within the next 7 overs with Tony Laws picking up 3 wickets for 10 runs.

Burbage made 117 runs, 68 runs short of Bradford’s total.

Bradford Town’s next match is against Spye Park at Culver Close, where they will be hoping to continue their excellent start to the season.

Bradford Town 2nd XI v Bathford 1st XI

Bradford Town 2nd XI (19 points) beat Bathford 1st XI (7 points) by 5 wickets.

On a warm, but breezy day in Bradford-on-Avon Steve Vowles, the Bathford skipper, won the toss elected to bat.

Vowles himself and James Stables opened the innings for Bathford and survived some good bowling from the Bradford opening bowlers Khyl Harrington (11-1-27-2) and Huw Ricketts (11-0-33-1).

Both Vowles and Stables found the edge of the bat on a number of occasions, but the ball seemed to drop short of fielders or fall into space.

They went on to build a solid opening partnership of 96 before James Stables (36) was caught off the bowling of Tony Burrows (3-0-25-1). Paul Merrett, the Bathford number three, made a useful 28, but the young Bradford bowlers (Rufus Lakin, Tom Wade and Harry Clarke) all made valuable contributions keeping it tight.

Steve Vowles batted well for his 46 and Bathford made 178-6 from their 45 overs.

It was once again the turn of the experienced Rob Powell and Graham Long to open the batting for Bradford.

They built an excellent 116 run partnership from 25 overs. Rob Powell was the first to fall in the 25th over for 57.

S. Ball (11-1-45-2) bowled Powell who was soon joined by Long for 41 after he was run out.

This left Bradford 122-2 with the Bathford opening bowler, Darrel Watts (12-5-22-1), coming back on to bowl his final spell. Watts bowled with accuracy and made it hard work for the Bradford middle order.

Bradford captain, Huw Ricketts, was Watts’ only victim plumb LBW. It was left to Darren Jones, the Bradford wicket keeper and Richard Smith to finish the job off.

Jones hit a number of powerful shots and took eight runs off the 43rd over calming the nerves of the Bradford players.

Smith hit the winning run off the third ball of the 45th over. Bathford made it very hard work for Bradford Town and deserve huge credit for the way they came back after a large opening partnership.