Penn Street vs Fladbury

Penn Street 164-10 (P. Jupp 103; Guy 6-16) beaten by Fladbury 167-4 (Martin 72*; C. Loftus 2-32, J. Mendy 2-54) by 6 wickets

If it’s Thursday of tour, then it must be our old friends at Fladbury, where – perhaps surprisingly – they were complaining about a pitch that was as dry as a bone and giving up puffs of dust when you patted it. It looked as if it might have some pace in it, and that was confirmed when Fowles, their opening bowler, charged in and sent the first three balls around Peter Jupp’s nose from just off a length. He called for a lid, and edged the next vicious lifting ball to 2nd slip, where he was put down. Meanwhile, Dave Harrison was also finding it difficult with pace and swing from both ends. However, they dug in, finally seeing off the opening bowlers after 10 overs.

However, respite was not to come. Up stepped spinner Guy, turning the ball to the right-hander square from off-to-leg with a left-arm leg-spinner’s action. In such circumstances, Dave Harrison might have been unfortunate to be given out lbw, but others found the unconventional spin and lift impossible to deal with. Mark Gloyens played on off shoulder and chest. Four others played on off various parts in total.

Meanwhile, Juppy carried serenely on, batting with great determination, farming the strike where necessary. Jack Mendy joined him at no 10 and hit a quick cameo 20, but the next highest score was Dave Harrison’s 6. Finally, Jack fell with Juppy still 15 runs short of well-deserved ton. On strode Paul Goodchild – would he be able to protect his wicket long enough for Juppy to convert? He did, carrying his bat no less as an exhausted Juppy eventually fell for a magnificent 103 out of 160.

Fladbury always score quickly, so if we wanted to win we would need to bowl them out. Dangerous opener skied a very difficult chance to Goody at fine leg, where he took a great running catch. Jack displayed his agility by removing the other opener with a sharp caught and bowled. But Martin was in form and batting aggressively, and the total looked short of what was required on the dry pitch. A neat catch/stumping by Bill Spry and a good catch by Briggsy off Chris Loftus wasn’t enough, and Fladbury won by 6 wickets.

Man of the Match : Peter Jupp