2nd XI Match Reports

Hansford provides his reports on Saturday's win v Cleobury Mortimer and our Midweek Cup Game v Pedmore.

The second XI took on newly promoted Cleobury Mortimer on Saturday. Having lost four players to the firsts we fielded three under 15’s as we looked to bounce back from last week’s defeat to Hagley. Belb won the toss and batted first on what looked a great deck.

Stanley and A MacKenzie opened, losing Stanley early left us 7-1 in the third over. Evans and MacKenzie steadied the ship putting on 49 before Evans was bowled for 16 in the 17th over. Wrigley and MacKenzie took us to drinks (22 overs) at 69-2. This pair pushed on after drinks, taking us to 136 in the 31st over, Wrigley being dropped on 30 would prove to be expensive.  MacKenzie pushed in well with a flurry of boundaries including 4 in as many balls before being bowled for a solid 45. Wrigley continued to punish the bad balls, whilst Hansford rotated the strike well, the pair putting on a partnership of 98 in the next 9 overs. Wrigley bringing up his well deserved hundred in the 41st over before finally being caught for 103 off 84 balls including 5 sixes and 13 fours. Hansford pushed on losing Spells at the other end before some strong hitting and running between the wickets with McKevitt, Hansford holing out on the last ball of the innings for a brisk 27 off 33 balls. Belb posting 250-7 off their 45.

Cleobury came out chasing with intent, rushing to 24 off 4 overs, before Spells removed their dangerous captain via a smart catch by Stanley at mid wicket in the fifth over.  In what was to prove a golden few overs, Todd Stevens then removed the other opener LBW in the 6th over, before Stevens clean bowled the dangerous looking number 3 batsman in the 8th over. Spells followed up clean bowling the number four bat in the 9th over leaving Cleobury reeling on 39-4.

Belbroughton were mindful Cleobury’s number six (Williams) had scored a match winning hundred from a similar position last week. But Belbroughton’s bowlers kept it tight, Wrigley bowling a miserly spell and removing their number 5. But Williams looked more than comfortable, striking the ball cleanly and took a shine to Langdon racing to 33 before a change of bowling saw Cook pick up the prize wicket of Williams, clean bowling him with a wonderful delivery and removing any hope of a Cleobury comeback.

Cook and Wrigley bowled well in tandem, Cook going on to return figures of 3-14 and Wrigley 2-6 before the introduction of G Flowers, in only the 24th over of a frenetic innings, saw him mop up their final batsman leaving Belbroughton to win by 143 runs and get off the mark for the season.

A very pleasing performance, against a strong side who will win plenty of games this season. Notably we set a platform with the bat to allow our middle order to fire, and bowled well, taking our catches when they came (bar one) and only conceding 5 bowling extras. It’s great to get off the mark with a win early, this result leaving us 6th in the league on 26pts and a chance to take on unbeaten leaders Old Vigs next Saturday and push into the top 4.

Belbroughton CC - 250/7 (45 overs)

Cleobury Mortimer CC - 107 All Out (23.2 overs)

MVP - Rick Wrigley (202 points)

Wednesday night saw the 2nd XI midweek KO with a strong looking Belbroughton team taking on Pedmore, a division above us in the league.

Giving our Saturday captain a well earned break, the Vice Captains took charge and maintaining his record of never having won a toss, Wrigley saw us out into the field.

In the field, Spells and Wrigley marshalled the bowlers well and in what was a good fielding display restricted Pedmore to 149-7, which at one stage could have looked like being nearer 200. All the bowlers bowled well with Karvaski the highlight picking up 3 important wickets and Spells 2.

A very gettable score looked a lot harder when Thomas was dismissed first ball, shortly followed by J MacKenzie leaving us 7-2. Dunn and Wrigley rebuilt before Dunn was cleaned up leaving us 25-3. Hansford and Wrigley rebuilt and the game was turning as we hit the 10 over point at 80-3. It was the 12th over when Wrigley tried to force another big shot, leaving us 90-4 and 98-5 as Spells fell. As the light dimmed coming into bat was getting harder and harder, Hansford recognising this batted through ending up 32 not out. In the near dark regular wickets fell and we limped to a respectable 121-9, falling short by 28 runs.

A top effort against a better team but the feeling of one that got away!

Pedmore CC - 149/7 (20 overs)

Belbroughton CC - 121/9 (20 overs)