CCA Junior League 1B

Barley CC 147 (33.4 overs)

Newport CC 137 (38.2 overs)

Barley won by 10 runs

ON a damp Barley track, Newport captain Jason Metson was relieved to win the toss and immediately asked Barley skipper Brian Symes to bat as the conditions clearly favoured bowling first.

Openers Chris Allan and Leigh Stewart had mixed fortunes as Dan Wood and George Dann came roaring in. Wood went for 14 off his first over against Allan whereas Dann dug a few in and quickly had Stewart caught behind for a duck. Symes also went for a duck receiving the same treatment and dollying up a slip catch fending off a short ball.

A Barley collapse looked on the cards until Ali Wallace and Allan began to hit out. The pair pushed Barley past 50 until Wallace was caught fending off a bouncer from Tim Baines for a brisk 25. Samir Ullah was quickly bowled by Andrew Hill and Baines picked up a second wicket when he bowled Richard Wilson for just one.

Allan by now had merrily pressed on to 37 until he was caught behind after skying yet another short ball from Dann. Amjad Afridi and Chris Markham then steadied things until Nick Baker had Markham well caught by Wood for 10. Afridi was then bowled for 11 by Baines who ended up taking 4-41 off his nine overs.

Adam Pattison then partnered Jimmy Ghani for a while and the pair put on a valuable 30 runs. Some cheeky reverse hitting from Pattison began to irritate the Newport players until Ghani was caught by Clive Pearce off Andrew Hill for 14, with Pattison left 15 not out. Barley were all out for 147.

In reply, Newport quickly found out how difficult the conditions actually were. Tight bowling from Jimmy Ghani (10-4-22-2) and Sami Ullah (10-3-22-1) restricted scoring opportunities and when wicketkeeper Allan caught out first Baines for a duck and then Pearce, who honourably walked for 12, it looked like 147 might be defendable.

Ghani soon trapped George Dann lbw for 8 leaving Andrew Hill to anchor the Newport reply. Stewart then carried on his good work from the week before against Barrington and had James Hill lbw for 15. Wallace (5-0-23-2) bowled a loose first over but soon struck back and had Will Ingham caught behind by Allan with another decent catch. Andrew Hill was still untroubled and having passed 50 soon realised he was running out of partners as Wallace bowled skipper Metson with a pearler.

Brian Symes (4-0-18-1) then came on to bowl at the death with Newport needing just 20-odd runs with three wickets in hand. But Barley quickly wrapped up victory with Symes bowling Wood, Allan stumping Thorpe off Stewart and the latter dismissing Ben Mallow.

Successive victories for Barley sends them optimistically into this weekend’s match away to newly-promoted Longstowe.