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Venue:
Bath CC 4th XI v Stoke Bishop CC 1st XI
Bath CC 4th XI v Stoke Bishop CC 1st XI
Bath CC lost against league leaders, Stoke Bishop CC 1st XI on Saturday at the Brownsword Ground.
After winning the toss and asking Stoke Bishop to bat first, the away sides opening batters got off to a good start before James Barlow (4) was caught off the bowling of Thiaan Aspeling to leave Stoke Bishop 39-1. Gordon Leeks and Simon Morris then batted well together before the introduction of Allan Alex to the attack picked up the important wicket of Leeks (37) with the first ball of his spell. Stoke Bishop’s batters then put away the bad balls and ran well with Simon Morris (45), Harry Abel (81), and Abraham Turner (41) the main contributors to their commanding total of 282 All Out. Pick of the Bath bowlers were Allan Alex (3-40) and Finn Barnard-Weston (3-36).
Bath’s reply got off to a great start as skipper David Pippett and Thiaan Aspeling put on 97 runs for the first wicket inside the first 18 overs. But by the time Aspeling (51) was run out, Stoke Bishop’s bowlers had been building the pressure for a number of overs through bowling some very tight lines. The introduction of Simon Morris (5-29) to the attack did change the course of Bath’s innings as he picked up five quick wickets including Pippett for 51. In the end, Bath’s lower order ensured that they picked up four batting points to go with their five bowling points, as the home sides innings finished on 178-6 from their 40 overs, still 104 runs adrift of Stoke Bishop’s total.