BTCC V Abingdon

We welcomed Abingdon to a Sunny Manor Fields, in a game that was important to both teams, Abingdon lying 2^nd and Bletchley 4^th in the league.

The Captain lost the toss again for the 1^st time this season and Bletchley were asked to bat.

I was confident with a strong batting line up of posting a good score.

We opened with Matt and Dave Shepherd again, the intention being that this should be the opening pair for the rest of the season

Things looked good as they both played well against the opening attack, with Matt carrying on where he had left off two weeks ago.

Dave scored a breezy 22 of 14 balls before being caught LBW.

Matt was joined by Steve Gordon and they put on a partnership of 149 before Matt was bowled for 68 and we were 194-2

Mark Grass had come down from the 1^st team looking for runs and hit his 1^st delivery for 4.

When Steve Gordon perished for 95 with the score on 209 in the 41^st over I thought with our batting we could be looking in excess of 250 and possibly nearer 270

Chris Greenway was scoring and happy to drop down the order, but we had the familiar mid order wobble the last 7 batsmen contributing 38 runs at the end of our 53 overs we were 241-8

After tea Abingdon came out to bat and the opener Warboys riding his luck looked to score rapidly, Chris had opened the bowling with Darren but it was not until the 8^th over when Chris struck bowling Ford for 4 at this point Warboys was on 28.

Chris struck again in the 10^th over and Abingdon were 35 for 2.

Guntrip was smartly run out for duck and with Abingdon now being 35-3 Bletchley thought that a win was looking likely.

This brought the Abingdon skipper Butcher to the crease and with Warboys he looked to rebuild the Abingdon innings.

What followed was a good example for sensible batting, good balls being patted back mixed with aggressive shots against any wayward bowling.

Between them they gradually brought Abingdon back into the game, Ben Shepherd had bowled with out causing a threat, and Des had 13 taken off two overs, and Darren had not been able to find any rhythm despite two spells.

The captain turned to Mark Grass, whose left arm over would offer a different line of attack from one end and Stuart Cooper from the other to try and break this partnership.

Bletchley were now slowing the game down to ensure no additional overs were bowled as Abingdon were looking to beat our total.

Warboys and Butcher brought the score to 201 in the 41st over before Cooper had Warboys caught in the deep for 103 with the pair looking to push on.

Butcher quickly followed possibly worried by the tail caught by Ben Shepherd off Grass and with Grass bowling Craper for a duck Abingdon were 204-6.

Time to speed up the game to get in more overs, Cooper then struck twice more again leaving Abingdon 222 –8 with only a few overs left.

Two of Abingdon’s younger players batted defensively and managed to see through to the regulation 7.30pm finish.

A winning draw and back in the right direction.

The middle order needs to come to the party next week away to Oxford IV to try and secure a win.

Bletchley Innings

Abingdon Bowling

Abingdon Innings

Bletchley Bowling