On Saturday, The Sports Stadium, Ipswich hosted the second Regional eventwhere players are invited to represent either North, Midlands or Southdepending on where they live.
On Saturday, The Sports Stadium, Ipswich hosted the second Regional event
where players are invited to represent either North, Midlands or South
depending on where they live.
The South side, Captained by Medite Ipswich Coach, Michael Edmond faced the
Northern region in the first match of the day. The South contained five
other Medite Ipswich players and two from Cradley Heath, who reside in the
London area, making them eligible.
The South batted first and got off to a good start thanks to Cradley's Paul
Thorburn and Medite Ipswich's Sean Ongers who put together a partnership of
33. This was followed up by Chris Norton and Gavin Driver (both Medite
Ipswich) who recovered from a shaky start to add 23 runs to the score.
Edmond then partnered Ross Allen (Cradley) to take the score to 77. Rick
Saggers and Mike Pitman (both Medite Ipswich) showed their class as the
amassed 37 runs to take the South score to 114.
In the field the South got off to a sluggish start but with 2 wickets taken
in the final over secured the first point of the match. With not much luck
going for the fielding side, the North crept their score up to 60 at the
half way stage and well on target to win the match. Edmond, bowling very
briskly conceded just 2 runs from his next over and with a run out taken,
his net score for the over was -3. Ongers then bowled an over for a net
score of -1 and the South were back in control of the match. The final pair
required 38 runs to win the match and fell 9 runs short, securing the
South's first win of the day.
The second match between the North and the Midlands was looking to be a
close affair before the North stepped up a gear and took all the points.
This meant that the South needed to secure just 2 points from their final
match against the midlands to retain the trophy won last year.
Two changes were made to the side with Mark Smith and player/manager, Brian
Barnard (both Medite Ipswich) coming in for Norton and Allen.
Once again the South batted first and once again, Thorburn and Ongers got
the region off to a solid start with a partnership of 33. Edmond joined
Driver to add 34 runs to the score. Smith and Barnard also added 34 to put
the South firmly in control, and Pitman and Saggers completed the innings
with 29.
130 was always going to be a tough target for the Midlands side, containing
4 "guest" players because several International players failing to show up
for the event. They got off to a very good start as some wayward bowling
and lacklustre fielding enabled them to steal the first point with a
partnership of 38. John Bartrum and Ian Connell (both Medite Ipswich),
guesting for the Midlands side, worked very hard but could only add 12 runs
to the score. The third partnership included Mark Sproats, the Tattingstone
player, who had never played this level of Indoor Cricket, scored 22 out of
their partnership of 30 before the South showed why they are the Regional
champions with Smith taking 2 wickets and Driver clean bowling the England
Coach (another "guest" player) twice on the trot, to retain the trophy.
The South have, as yet, have not lost a single regional match and
player/Manager, Brian Barnard added afterwards "We thoroughly deserved to
win this event again, and although the performance was a little patchy in
places played solidly throughout. All in all I am delighted for all the
players involved in the squad and the professional they showed to retain
this trophy".
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