Some great cricket was on show last weekend at Baileys Court Cricket Ground, as the Bradley Stoke CC Second XI took on local rivals Hambrook Seconds in a game which saw an excellent batting display. They chased 193 off of 28 overs in the second innings to win the game over their arch rivals.
In the first innings, when Hambrook CC were batting, they started off well with opening batsmen Martin Richardson making 40, this was nicely accompanied with Hambrook’s number three and former Bradley Stoke players Chris Wood making 36 runs in their batting innings.
Youngster Louis Martin impressed in the adults’ game as he made 15 not out before the rain came and the teams were forced to take tea two overs short of the 45 overs mark.
With the rain making its mark when the players were having tea, both captains discussed how they could get a game in. In the end, the Bradley Stoke captain Gareth Price decided his batting side were strong enough and they decided to chase 193 off of 32 overs, the minimum total of overs to get a game in.
The start of their batting innings did not get off to the best of starts, Sririam Bellamkonda caught out for four runs and opening batsman Paul Peterson dropped on the first over – this proved to be costly as he went on to make 45 runs. The remainder of the innings went well – with captain Gareth Price’s 80 runs they made a 126 partnership together (this was after Ben Wooster had been dismissed cheaply).
After the two big run scorers, Peterson and Price were out, it was up to the rest of the order to finish off the job and it was done fantastically, some excellent running between the wickets from John Tickner.
They chased the total down successfully in 28 overs, four to spare, and an excellent display from the Bradley Stoke Second XI.
Photo: Archive image of a cricket match at the Baileys Court ground.
The Third XI sealed promotion from the A XI Division 1, thanks to a nine wicket win over St Mary Redcliffe. Bradley Stoke were first up to bowl and were soon making inroads into the St Mary’s batting line up with openers Allen Cotterell taking 5 for 27 and Thom Goodwin 2 for 33. St Mary’s were eventually bowled out for 107 inside 30 overs. Bradley Stoke lost opener Andy Burrows early in their reply for 17 but fellow opener Tim Batt 64 (n/o) and no. 3 Stuart New 21 (n/o) saw them home for a comfortable win inside eleven overs.
The First XI crashed to a 40 run defeat away at Hanham. The opposition were bowled out for 144 in a reduced innings of 41 overs; Graham Purnell was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-15. Again, with rain interrupting the game, Bradley Stoke were made to chase the target down off of 32 overs and were soon in trouble losing their top three for the total of nine runs, thanks to some questionable umpiring. From then on, a win for Bradley Stoke never looked likely and they finished the innings on 104 for 9 with Lewis Wentland making the only score of note with 21.
Football: Bradley Stoke Town FC
The First Team played a pre-season friendly on Saturday where Totterdown FC travelled to the Jubilee field only to lose 6-4 after some nice attacking play from both sides that looks positive for the upcoming season.
 | Article by Connor Summers |
If you would like to see your club’s news and/or match reports appear in future editions of the Bradley Stoke Sport Report, please email your contribution to our newsdesk by 6pm on a Monday
