1st XI - Game 4

Bridgwater v Bristol, WEPL Premier 1, 26 May 2018
Bristol 223-7, L Shaw 47no, W Rudge 45, D Rossiter 3-37, A Skidmore 3-53
Bridgwater 164 (42.3 overs), S Butt 60, W Rudge 3-26
Bristol won by 59 runs
Fin Trenouth’s direct hit from cover left Bridgwater’s last man Daniel Rossiter short of his ground, completing a comprehensive away victory for Bristol, and a day that had begun with a nightmare journey in the bank holiday traffic ended in a much more satisfactory way.
Inserted by Bridgwater in muggy conditions - which rain periodically threatened but never arrived - Bristol’s total of 223 for 7 in their fifty overs was founded on a solid opening stand of 51 between James Bracey and Lisle Durrans. Runs were hard to come by in the opening overs – the first powerplay yielded just nineteen runs – but crucially the watchful batsmen kept their wickets intact. Only 8 of the first 50 came from the top end, from which Andy Roberts bowled a parsimonious spell of 7-3-7-0. Bracey did manage a smattering of boundaries in his 31, including one that nearly cleared the ropes at mid-wicket in the thirteenth over, and was followed immediately by another through the covers. He was nearly run out by a direct hit in the seventeenth, but Rossiter got through his defences later in the same over.
Durrans found the boundary for the first time in the nineteenth, with a clip off his legs to move into the twenties, and followed up with another very similar a few balls later. He then lost two partners in quick succession: Trenouth bowled by Andrew Skidmore, coming down the pitch and yorking himself, and Will Young, bowled via his bat and pads for three. Durrans himself departed soon afterwards, caught in the gully for a painstaking 36 off 93 balls. Matt Brewer looked good in his brief innings, using his feet to the spinners to open up the off side, hitting the cover fielders repeatedly, before threading two through to the boundary, one off a gift of a full toss. But he came down the pitch once too often and was stumped, to give Andrew Skidmore his third wicket, in what looked a marginally decision.
From 102-5 in the 33rd over, a crucial partnership of 71 in 11 overs between Louie Shaw and Will Rudge took Bristol towards a competitive score. Rudge’s 45 off 41 balls included 9 fours, as he peppered the fine (in come cases very fine) leg boundary with his trademark sweep shot, and cracked Andrew Skidmore twice through the covers.
After Rudge was caught at mid-wicket and Tommy Probert was plumb LBW to his second ball, Paul Redwood joined Shaw and the pair added a morale-boosting fifty of the last five overs. Shaw had started slowly, collecting just a single off his first 17 balls, but he gradually accelerated, helped by a friendly full-toss in Andrew Skidmore’s final over which he dispatched over mid-wicket for six. He added two more maximums in the final over (which yielded 20 in total), only being denied the opportunity to complete a half-century by Redwood calling him through for a run off the penultimate ball. Redwood atoned, however, by cracking the last ball through the leg-side for four.
Bristol took wickets at regular intervals during fine opening spells from Rudge and Probert who each collected two poles. Smead was dropped by Young at second slip but Probert clean bowled him two balls later. Rudge removed Chauhan in similar fashion, then Probert collected a diving caught-and-bowled to dismiss the other opener, Kitch. A fine catch from Brewer, diving backwards at extra cover dismissed Barrett and left Bridgwater struggling at 33 for 4 in the 17th. This became 69 for 6 in the 22nd after Ash Joyner removed Devitt, and Neil Pollard dismissed the jet-lagged Singleton, both caught behind by Bracey.
One felt the end should come swiftly from this point, but Stuart Butt proved adhesive, and Chris Skidmore batted aggressively at the other end, hitting 39 from 31 balls of this pair’s partnership of 51. Skidmore hit Pollard for two sixes over the fence at the pavilion end, including one off a free hit, then repeated the dose off Shaw in the next over, into the road and the hedge at extra cover respectively.
But Probert returned for two overs to dry up the runs, and Shaw gained more control before finally inducing Skidmore to hit the ball aerially in the direction of extra cover where Brewer took another good catch running in off the boundary.
The other Skidmore, Andrew was promptly LBW to Rudge, giving the skipper his third wicket and capping a fine all-round performance on the day. Butt continued to prove troublesome until he was stumped by Bracey off Shaw, finishing with three sixes and three fours in his 90-ball 60. It then only remained for Trenouth to apply the coup de grace.