Minchinhampton Common can be a desolate place at times and Saturday was no exception. Abberley were not blown off course by the strong wind but by a series of poor shots and it must be said some good bowling by an innocuous looking gentle outswing bowler who took 6-13 in 7 overs. Put into bat Fergus and Will F started steadily. Will was all at sea and having been dropped twice finally nicked to the keeper at the end of the 8th over. Ed followed two balls later, the first victim of Mr .Campbell ably assisted by the keeper standing up ,who had the bails off before Ed could regain his balance. Will played across the line and lost his off stump before Fergus hung James out to dry with a suicidal run to leave us 30-4.

Hugo came in and struck four good boundaries and with Fergus accumulating nicely, thirty runs were amassed in good time. A rush of blood to the spinner saw off Hugo and after taking three boundaries in an over Harry tried to help the outswinger round the corner and was trapped bang in front. Fergus batted 25 overs before he was tempted slightly out of his crease and the excellent keeper again whipped his bails off. 90-7 at tea off 27 overs.

We still had a potential 8 overs in this 65 over game but only 5 were used as we stuttered to 114 all out with Dan helping the tail to wag.
We would need to bowl as tidily as the opposition but too many bad balls were served up and three lots of 4 byes did not help the cause. 49 runs were amassed as Beaudesert cut loose from the 4th to the 8th over. Fergus did eventually snare the opposition skipper but his fellow opener serenely carried on punishing the bad ball. The pace of the run chase slowed with the return of the opening bowlers but our cause was not helped by three sharp catches dropped, 2 at slip and one by the keeper. There were still a potential 12 overs remaining when the inevitable defeat came.

Much credit must go to the opposition who bowled several wides but who generally kept things tight. They batted with intelligence and power. There were some very good individual performances. We have yet to hit any heights individually though Fergus deserves credit for batting patiently and playing some good shots. Beaudesert thoroughly deserved their win and Abberley must produce in a game what they sometimes show in practice.

With confidence the Captain chose to bat and the decision was met with gleeful thanks by the Abberley batters. By the 3rd over with two batters back in the pavilion and only 3 runs on the board the gleeful smiles of earlier were replaced by furrowed brows and worried frowns. But just as St. George rose to the challenge (albeit only against a mythical dragon), birthday boy Will.B smote the fiery bowling of the Beaudesert attackers with his trusty bat and being superbly supported by Harry G. (there's a Shakespearian quote bubbling beneath this sentence somewhere!) the innings was turned around. More runs of Andrew S and Captain Richard S. saw us to a respectable total.

Just as our innings started miserably so did Beaudesert's : 2 for 2. We were cruising.....or were we? A dropped catch was the catalyst for a Beaudesert revival. Their excellent keeper was also a good batter and his 61 runs were vital. The final over and the scores were tied. A swing of the bat, the ball skidding off towards mid-wicket and a scampered run and victory was Beaudesert's. An excellent game of cricket and much to applaud.

Well played one and all. A respite now before we host Bromsgrove and do battle once more.

Put in to bat by Beaudesert the early order made steady progress keeping the scoreboard ticking over relatively quietly. Timon (33) then struck some lovely shots to increase the run rate, enjoying a fruitful partnership with Will(12).With 7 wickets down Charlie (22 n. o.) and Jack ( 9 n.o.) added a final flurry leaving Beaudesert a target of 119 to win off 25 overs.

Although Jack and Toby both took wickets in their opening spells, the batsmen scored with relative ease and things looked rather bleak at 88 - 3, but then Aiden took 3 - 10 which ensured a tight finish, with the home side reaching the required total with 3 wickets and 7 balls to spare.

The Abberley reply started with Freddie H and Morgan W opening the batting. For the first few overs we were resolute in defence against the opening bowlers, just protecting our wicket and playing sensibly.

As the game started to progress Freddie poked and prodded for singles and Morgan then began to smash the bad balls to the boundary with ease. Then the runs just began to flow, the scoreboard showing 50 for 0, then 80 for 0 and wow for the first time in history we reached the milestone of 100 for 0 !!!! Unfortunately Freddie was then bowled with the score still on 100. Max and Morgan then scored the remaining runs off of the next couple of deliveries.

We had scored 110 for 1 off of 14 overs, with Morgan undefeated for a super 56 runs.

Congratulations boys for a super performance. Well Done

Forget jumping on a plane for South Africa to watch the Chennai Super Kings or Rajastan Royals, for exciting cricket just come down to the Swimming Pool pitch and watch the Abberley 4th XI.