Important Win for Nailsea 3rds

Just two months ago, the 3rd XI kicked off their season with an

excellent chase of 177 against Stanton Drew at home. On what was surely

the hottest day of the year, Nailsea travelled to Stanton Drew for the

return fixture looking to continue their winning run and retain their

buffer at the top of the NSCL Division 3 Conference table. Stanton Drew

were unbeaten at home and Nailsea hadn't yet lost on the road, so both

teams were looking for a good performance and a a strong win to set up

the second half of the season.

On an emotional day, captain Steve

Spencer won the toss and sent Stanton Drew in to bat. Putting trust in

his bowling attack (which so far this year had kept teams to 82, 73, 95,

51 & 47), Robinson (2-22) and Taylor (0-26) kept things extremely

tight, with several very strong shouts inexplicably turned down by the

umpires. As ever, Brimble bowled well to finish with 1 for 29 from his 8

overs, and topped things off with a one handed grab and direct hit to

run out Stanton Drew's number 6 for a duck. As Nailsea felt the effects

of the heats, Stanton Drew tried to increase their run rate, their

opening batsmen hitting the ball regularly through the o***ide to reach

58, before Spencer (1-47) brought himself back on and knocked him over

via an inside edge.

Eventually Stanton Drew reached a sub-par 181

for 5 from their 40 overs.

As Nailsea came out to bat, fatigue

set in. Some were already finding it to hard to concentrate and the top

order crumbled, falling to 27 for 4. However excellent knocks from Chris

Thackray (43) and David Iles (33) settled the team and pushed the score

quickly towards the required total. When Iles ran himself out (possibly

from exhaustion), and Thackray was caught 7 short of what would have

been a deserved 50, it was left to James Taylor (43*) and Spencer (9*)

to get the required runs with almost 5 overs to spare.

An

excellent and important game to win for all of us.

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Scorecard