Bristol v Clevedon, WEPL Premier 1, 27 May 2017
Clevedon 94 all out (29 overs), Probert 3-19, Hardwick 3-21
Bristol 98-3 (24.2 overs), Brace 53, Fellowes 27

Bristol completed a 3-wicket victory over Clevedon to register their third win from four attempts this season. It was all done and dusted on the stroke of 4 o’clock, and propelled Bristol to third in the table. Bristol were only twenty-one runs away from recording a ten-wicket win and taking maximum points, thanks to a disciplined opening partnership of 73 between James Bracey and Archie Fellowes. But both fell within a twenty-five ball period that also saw the dismissal of Charlie Spink and it was left to Roger Sillence and Felix Ward to inch their team closer to, and finally surge over, the finishing line.

Oddly electing to bat first in murk and mizzle, Clevedon lost their first wicket in the third over, Masoor Khan hooking at Dan Jones and lobbing a catch to Bracey behind the stumps. Wickets fell regularly thereafter, Clevedon’s batsmen unable to put together a partnership larger than 25. This was in part due to some disciplined bowling by the Bristol attack, who found “nibble” in the early overs, and partly due to some poor batting.

Rudge, on his return from injury, stamped his mark on the game with a good slip catch to dismiss Curtis and give Tommy Probert the first of three well-deserved wickets; the others being Lezar, caught behind, and Carpenter, who spooned a catch to Fellowes at point.
Felix Ward induced Tabish Khan to give a catch to Hardwick at short extra. Hardwick himself then bowled Solomons as he attempted a clip off his legs, and had Lintott, who offered some resistance with 24 off 48 balls, LBW. Pollard began the second over of his two-over spell by having Rowe caught at slip by Rudge, and ended it by conceding the only six of the innings,.

Hardwick seemed to find the spare ball that replaced the one Plummer had deposited into the hedge behind the scorebox, to his liking, immediately rearranging Houston’s stumps with it to complete his own three-fer. Four overs later, Jones got just reward for some earlier hostile bowling in the middle of the innings, demolishing Plummer’s stumps with the last delivery of his tenth over.

Bristol’s opening pair approached their task with positivity. Lintott’s decision to open with his own spin backfired as the first over conceded ten, including two boundaries to Bracey, a cut and a sweep and this set the tone for the innings. Bracey scored the more freely of the pair, adding five further boundaries: two one-bounce fours over mid-off, another sweep off Lintott, and one to each of the short square boundaries on either side of the ground. He competed his fifty off 56 balls. Meanwhile Fellowes rotated the strike with some audacious running that forced a series of errors from the Clevedon fielders. And he finally opened his shoulders to club a full-toss from Adeel Khan to the extra cover boundary.

Fellowes’ departure to a low catch by Carpenter at short mid-wicket initiated Bristol’s slight wobble, and Bracey will be disappointed to have been caught in the deep with victory just two blows away. But after Plummer had missed a straightforward opportunity to stump Ward, there were no further alarms, and Bristol will be well satisfied with their afternoon’s work.