The torrential morning downpour that washed out the home fixture against Midsomer Norton marked the mid-point of Bristol 1st XI’s WEPL season. Two weeks earlier the game against Frome had met a similar fate – but not before there was sufficient play for Bristol to pick up three bonus points. Of the remaining seven matches, Bristol has won them all, and the team sits on top of the Premier 2 Bristol / Somerset division with a lead of 23 points. After last season, though, no-one is getting complacent.

192 off 152 balls is not the worst way to announce your arrival at a new club, and Bristol’s new overseas signing Mitch Renwick’s innings against Golden Hill in the opening game of the season was all the more impressive for coming just a few days after stepping off a flight from New Zealand. Renwick’s innings propelled his side to a total of 344-4 off their fifty overs. Remarkably, this was only the third highest total in the WEPL on the day, but it set up a comfortable 151-run 20-point victory to get Bristol’s season off to the perfect start.
Renwick joined Nic Halstead-Cleak at the crease at the end of the first over. The latter continued his form from the pre-season warm-up games, in which he scored 290 runs in 3 innings with two hundreds, reaching his half-century off 62 balls and putting on 106 with Renwick before hitting Thomas’s slower ball to cover. Louie Shaw, captaining the side in the absence of the honeymooning Will Rudge, brought some enterprise into the running between the wickets, and accumulated five boundaries in his 55-ball 44.

Meanwhile Renwick had brought up his century off 106 balls, with just 7 fours (and 5 threes), scoring 77 of the 130 he put on with Shaw. But he was only just beginning. He barely hit the ball in the air until he was well past his century, and, even then, he seemed to have an uncanny knack of hitting it just out of a fielder’s reach. He gave his first and only chance on 117 – dropped at cover, and then moved up a gear, plundering 73 off his last 32 balls, including 32 off a painful 2-over spell for Thomas.

His approach to the free hit that he was gifted after a Shafi no-ball exemplified the innings. Where most batsmen at this level would have tried something outlandish, and, more than likely, missed, Renwick merely stood up and stroked the ball along the ground to the extra cover boundary.

Archie Fellowes replaced Shaw and proved the perfect foil for Renwick in the latter stages, with only two dot-balls out of 22 in his bustling unbeaten 32.

Golden Hill did not appear daunted by the challenging target. Despite the early loss of Shafi, caught behind off Probert, they rattled along at six an over in the powerplay and they kept that rate up for another few overs afterwards. But three wickets from Sam Brewer brought things back under control for Bristol. First Hygate gave a simple catch to Shaw at backward point, then Thomas holed out to Kantolinna on the cover boundary, and the dangerous Daaryoush Ahmed was LBW.

Thereafter the game as a contest was done and it was just a matter of allocating the bonus points. The rest of the batting subsided gradually as spinners Harry Arthur (2-60) and Shaw (4-21) bowled in tandem until the victory was sealed.

The first away trip of the season was to Bishopston, where Miles Kantolinna, newly promoted to open the batting this season, carried his bat for a superb, painstaking, patient 76 off 124 balls, as Bristol knocked off 164 runs to gain a 6-wicket victory with 8 overs to spare. While, in the end, the result was as comfortable as those margins suggest, the chase was not without its nervy moments on a pitch of variable pace and bounce, on which no batsman seemed comfortable all day.

Bristol lost Nic Halstead-Cleak, possibly handicapped by a finger injured picked up whilst ‘keeping in the Bishopston innings, in the fourth over. Kantolinna then put on 48 for the second wicket with Renwick, as Renwick’s Otago teammate Gus Mackenzie found a challenging length that made scoring difficult. Renwick managed a couple of boundaries from sumptuous extra-cover drives at the other end, but finally Bishopston’s gamble of bowling all Mackenzie’s overs straight through paid off, with a successful LBW appeal off the last ball of his ninth.

With two key batsmen back in the pavilion and still over a hundred needed, Bristol will have felt a slight tremor of concern. Louie Shaw took 15 balls to get off the mark, but found his feet, hitting Thirkell over mid-off for four and starting to rotate the strike on a regular basis, before hitting a catch to Mackenzie at long off. At 92 for 3 in the 29th Bristol were far from home and hosed.

But Kantolinna continued calmly accumulating, as he had throughout, with a palette of deft deflections on both sides of the wicket, assured strokes for singles out to the cover sweeper and the occasional clip to leg. He was given a couple of lives in the forties but completed a well-deserved half-century off 92 balls. Archie Fellowes again played the perfect innings for the latter stages, hustling ones into twos and twos into threes, and finding the boundary three times in five deliveries off the leg-spinner Joe Cook. He eventually fell to the third LBW decision of the innings, for an excellent 36-ball 30, which had helped to put the result beyond doubt.

Earlier Josh Shaw had bowled a hostile opening spell, striking Bishopston opener Tommy Predgen a painful blow on the toe, and bowling the same batsman off a no-ball. Tommy Probert lent excellent support, both opening bowlers conceding just 12 runs each of their opening six-over spells.

Although scoring at just two per over, Bishopston, having weathered this period without losing any wickets, might still have fancied going on to build a challenging score. But Dan Jones, replacing Probert from the pavilion end, took three wickets in his first four overs to change the complexion of the innings, as Bishopston’s top order batsmen perished trying to force the pace. While Mackenzie unleashed three boundaries in his first ten balls and maintained stubborn resistance thereafter, Bishopston never really recovered, though neither did they collapse, surviving into the final over before losing their tenth wicket to a direct hit run-out from Halstead-Cleak. Louie Shaw and Harry Arthur claimed two wickets apiece, and Josh Shaw and Tommy Probert returned to claim one each.

The following week, Bristol hosted Ilminster. A win is a win when all is said and done, but at 72 for 1, chasing the visitors’ modest total of 145 all out, Bristol might have hoped for a somewhat more comfortable margin, a less nerve-wracking late afternoon, and perhaps a few more than the 17 points that the eventual 3-wicket victory delivered.

At that point Halstead-Cleak and Renwick had just posted another fifty partnership after Kantolinna edged behind early on (having faced the first over of the inning before realising he was not wearing a box). Halstead-Cleak was looking in good form with a six over long on and three fours. But in the next five overs, Bristol lost four wickets, including Louie Shaw to a controversial run-out going for a second overthrow on top of Archie Fellowes’ original quick single. When Jack Ellison was bowled five balls later, Bristol were 94 for 5, still needing 52.
Fellowes was dropped at slip in the next over, and while he and Harry Arthur steadied the ship, the runs slowed to a trickle – just 9 in the next 6 overs. Arthur released some pressure with a fine four through the covers followed immediately by a five courtesy of more overthrows. But next over he too was back in the pavilion, LBW to Indian leg-spinner Rajesh Dhupar.

Josh Shaw hit Dhupar over his head for four but was caught behind next ball, and Bristol were seven down with 21 still needed. Fellowes, though, was calmness personified, and while Will Rudge had a few alarms against the leg-spinner, these two finally saw Bristol home, with ten and a half overs to spare, in part thanks to the unusual sight of Rudge running three threes in four balls.

In the Ilminster innings Josh Shaw and Tommy Probert had bowled testing opening spells, Shaw yorking the opener Hurford and having Dhupar smartly caught in the gully by Fellowes. Then a direct hit from Sam Brewer at mid-on dispatched Johnston who had hit three fours in his 8-ball innings. After Rudge’s initially rustiness following his four-week lay-off, he and Brewer bowled tidily but without making any further incisions. It was not until the spinners got into their work that the Ilminster innings started to fall apart.

Sam Spurway had looked untroubled for his 72-ball 39, but he was the first of Harry Arthur’s wickets, LBW sweeping, fourth out with the total at 101. The rest followed at regular intervals as the last six wickets added just 44. An impressive diving catch from Louie Shaw at short cover gave Arthur his fourth wicket (4-33 in the end). Meanwhile Shaw himself bowled a spell off Pollardesque miserliness, taking the last two wickets in combination with Jack Ellison’s catching to finish with 3 for 13 off 9.3 overs.

The victory was slightly more straightforward the following week at Shapwick & Polden. Bristol won the toss, inserted the home side, and bowled them out for exactly 100. This after they were 47 without loss at the end of the powerplay, Rob Hill, in particular, going well with seven fours, including four in one Rudge over. But the arrival of Louie Shaw started the collapse: he took wickets with the second and third balls of his first over. Josh Shaw then changed ends and took three for three in his next three overs (he returned later to pick up a fourth). And Sam Brewer bowled unchanged to the end of the innings, finishing with the remarkable figures of 7.2 overs, 3 maidens, 3 for 8. Will Rudge picked up three catches at slip.

Bristol knocked off the runs for the loss of five wickets, in 23 overs. Renwick top-scored with a 35-ball 27, and there were four other contributions in the teens.

As May turned to June the weather started to deteriorate. General sogginess at Failand delayed the start of the game against Weston Super Mare until 2pm and reduced the match to 42 overs per side. The batting was a team effort, with no-one reaching fifty, but seven scores between 18 and 42, Miles Kantolinna top-scoring. His departure, run out, in the 22nd over triggered a slight wobble, from 95-1 to 106-4 seventeen balls later. But Fellowes and Ellison saw off the danger with a partnership of 46 in 10 overs, giving a platform for Josh Shaw (32 from 16 balls with 2 sixes and 2 fours) and Rishi Panchal to wreak some late innings havoc. Their departure in consecutive balls in the penultimate over left Sam Brewer and Tommy Probert to scamper their way to Bristol’s fifth batting point.

A target of 230 looked challenging on paper, but Peter Trego had scored just 15 fewer than that on his own the previous week against Downend, so Bristol were taking nothing for granted. There were other batsmen – and other Tregos - to contend with first, though. Probert got the early breakthrough, having Elstone caught by Louie Shaw at backward point, then Dan Jones had Ahmed caught by Kantolinna at mid-off, and Jack Trego caught behind for a 36-ball seven. This brought in Peter Trego to join his son Davis, and although Peter got off the mark with two fours off Jones, Panchal bowled Davis with his fourth ball two overs later, and then soon afterwards had Peter LBW. This ended Weston’s challenge, and the tail was no match for Louie Shaw’s wiles. The left-arm spinner mopped up the remaining five wickets for just 26 runs as Weston subsided to 128 all out. A win by 101 runs, but tantalisingly missing out on two extra bonus points.

The following week saw a comfortable victory at Winterbourne. Louie Shaw picked up another five wickets as the home side were bowled out for 134. Kantolinna and Halstead-Cleak both notched up half-centuries in the chase, their opening partnership only being broken when 12 runs short of the target.

The abandonment against Frome followed. More Failand sogginess delayed the start until 2.45 and reduced the overs allocation to 34, and the visitors chose to bowl after winning the toss. After a janunty run-a-ball 16 from Kantolinna, Halstead-Cleak and Renwick shared a partnership of 158 in 135 balls. Renwick’s 72-ball 85 included 9 fours and a six; and Halstead-Cleak’s 81-ball 76 included 7 boundaries. He was undefeated when the rain ended play after 30 overs with Bristol 197 for 3.

And so to Downend, with its tiny boundaries and vocal supporters, where Bristol found themselves, for a while at least, in a proper fight to defend 290. Josh Shaw’s first two overs went for 31 as Olly Sharp peppered the churchyard with missiles. Sharp soon holed out to Kantolinna at mid-off off Probert for a 12-ball 31, and Griesharber gave Jack Ellison possibly the easiest catch he has ever taken, at cover off Shaw, but thanks to the turbo-charged start, Downend were well up with the rate at 108-2 off 18, with Jordan Garrett swinging freely and Ian Cockbain looking ominously restrained.

Once again, though, Louie Shaw landed a telling blow in his first over – in fact his very first ball, this time – having Cockbain LBW. And Kantolinna, introduced into the attack three overs later, with his second ball, induced Garrett to hit one in the air behind square on the leg side where Josh Shaw clung on to a difficult catch. Had Will Rudge managed to cling on to a chance at slip from Callum Loud later the same over, Bristol might have been home and dry, but instead Loud combined with Roberts to keep the chase on course. The pair added 81 off 92 balls, and it needed another decisive intervention from Louie Shaw in the first over of a spell, to stop them in their tracks, Halstead-Cleak completing a somewhat circuitous stumping.

At the fall of this fifth wicket, Downend needed 77 off 12-and-a-bit overs – by no means impossible given Downend’s unique geography. But in his next over, L Shaw removed Raj Desai, thanks to the safe hands of Mitch Renwick at mid-wicket, and the rest followed like the proverbial pack of cards, L Shaw contriving to finish with five wickets for the third innings in succession.

Earlier Bristol’s openers had notched up 60 in the powerplay, and although Halstead-Cleak departed the next ball, and an out-of-sorts Renwick was bowled for a 14-ball duck, Kantolinna went on to complete an impressive 87 off 105 balls with 16 fours. Louie Shaw made 34 from 37 before sauntering past one from Loud. Rudge promoted himself to number five, hit three sixes, and was caught attempting a fourth. Jack Ellison maintained the momentum with a 19-ball 25, and Josh Shaw scored 39 of the last 60 runs, off just 23.

So far, so good, then, as far as the league is concerned. Renwick leads the run-scoring tally with 384, and both openers have three fifties to their name and are closing in on 300 runs. Louie Shaw tops the bowling stats with 26 wickets at the ridiculous average of 7.38.

Bristol has also reached the WEPL T20 finals day thanks to four straight victories spread across two Sundays. At Bedminster in late May, the whole team fielded superbly to dismiss the hosts for 121 (4 wickets for L Shaw, 3 for Brewer, 2 for Probert and 1 to Panchal who was the most economical bowler). This after recovering from 17 for 3 to set 152 thanks largely to a partnership of 120 in 15 overs between L Shaw (67 off 56 balls with two sixes and 6 fours) and Fellowes (40 off 37 with a six and 3 fours). They then beat Golden Hill in a nail-biter by just one run, the number 11, needing to hit his first and only ball for six, only managing a four. Rishi Panchal, with 3 for 19 in the middle of the innings, was the pick of the bowlers. Bristol’s 20-over total of 166 for 3 was founded on 78 off 47 balls (4 sixes, 8 fours) from Renwick, whom Golden Hill must be heartily sick of bowling to; 46 not out off 48 from L Shaw; and 24 off 14 from Fellowes.

Five weeks later, on a dustbowl at Taunton St Andrews that was perfectly suited to Bristol’s spin-heavy attack, they rolled over Clevedon for the remarkable score of 51 (Rob Jones 3-17 off 3; Kantolinna 2-4 off 3; and run-outs by Shazil Mustafa and Jack Ellison). Scoreboard pressure may have played some part in Clevedon’s demise after Bristol posted 173-4 in 20 overs, kick-started by Mustafa’s 11-ball 17, and featuring 72 off 49 from Renwick and 52 off 39 from Halstead-Cleak). As the pitch continued to deteriorate, Bristol then overcame the hosts by 27 runs (Renwick 51 off 41; Jones 4 for 24; L Shaw 3-11) to book a place in finals day, which Bristol will host on 17 July.

With Bristol also into the second round of the Gloucestershire County Cup, there is plenty to play for in the second half of the season.