1st XI - Game 14 - Bath 197, Bristol 99

This game can be summed up in four short sentence (five if you count this one). Bristol, on the whole bowled and fielded well. Bath, with the one exception of the centurion, Sam Young, batted poorly. However, when their turn came, Bath bowled better. Bristol batted worse and, as the top score of 18 illustrates, they lacked an exception.
After losing the toss and finding themselves in the field, Bristol reduced the home side to 18 for 3 as Tommy Probert bowled his first six-over spell for just six runs and dismissed Tom Hankins for a duck, and Neal Patel took two in two in his fifth over, including the dangerous Greg Hay. A confident LBW appeal against Sam Young to the hat-trick ball was turned down by umpire Ogborne, whose absence of a leg-bye signal for the ensuing two runs indicated he had detected some bat.
Ash Joyner and Louie Shaw then each bowled six over spells for just 17 runs, Joyner picking up the wicket of Tim Rouse, as stand-in skipper Will Young employed his bowling changes cannily and Bristol kept up the pressure. Sam Young gave a very difficult chance, high to the left of his namesake at gully when he had just nine, but a fine running catch above his head by Fin Trenouth at long-on off Vir Lakhani dismissed Luke Padgett and Ben Ackland gifted a stumping to the same bowler first ball after drinks to leave his side 115 for 6. From there Bristol would have hoped to restrict Bath to less than the eventual 197, but Adam Kelly hung around to put on 67 with Young, who accelerated from a 79-ball fifty to a 115-ball hundred, taking 20 off an over from the unfortunate Patel, who nonetheless finished with 3 for 51. Joyner knocked over numbers 10 and 11 to finish with an outstanding 4 for 25. The innings ended one ball short of the 50 overs, leaving the visitors to score at just under 4 an over to win.
But Bristol found themselves 37 for 5 before the first drinks break on another scorching afternoon, as the top order were undone by the swing of Adam Kelly. Archie Fellowes and Paul Redwood steadied the ship for a while, but Redwood was bowled by Rouse, Fellowes edged the same bowler to slip, and then Tommy Probert was smartly caught down the leg-side by Bath’s impressive young ‘keeper Ben Wells off the first ball from occasional spinner Greg Hay. Hay trapped Joyner leg-before three balls later, and although Lakhani and Patel delayed the inevitable for eight overs, Bristol finished 98 runs short.