ABCC v Fillongley

Astwood Bank again looked forward to hosting a bumper crowd as the entertaining National Village Cup returned to the Bankbowl. The champions of the Leicestershire and Warwickshire group Fillongley were the opponents on what promised to be a fine summers afternoon.

With the usual long debate about what to do should we win the toss, captain Dan Sealey duly lost it and was asked to field by the Fillongley skipper. The wicket looked good and a high scoring match looked to be on the cards. However, as often proves to be the case in Village Cup matches, nerves appeared to get the better of the batting side.

Fillongley got off to a disasterous start when a good length delivery from Tom Harris was chipped tamely to the Bank captain Dan Sealey at mid-wicket by the Fillongley opener. Dennis Freeman then ripped through the top order with excellent figures of 3 for 25 which included an excellent catch from Jonny Summers. When Jon Summers finally dismissed the nervous looking Fillongley number 6 with a cleverly flighted delivery it looked as though the game was getting away from the visitors as an early finish looked to be on the cards. The Fillongley number 4, Blackmore, had other ideas and his efforts gave Fillongley a fighting chance of posting a defendable total. He ended with 91 well crafted runs with a number of lusty blows against the Banks spin bowlers.

When Blackmore finally fell, the visitors innings crept up to 164 all out in the final over, a below par score but one that could be defended with a few early breakthroughs. The Astwood Bank seam attack were the pick of the bowlers, each bagging 3 wickets.

A place in the last 16 looked well within reach at the halfway stage but the batsman didn’t let this distract them in their well paced run chase. Openers Dave Sewell and Dan Sealey got the innings off to a steady start until Sewell fell to a good catch after attempting to guide the ball through gully. Alex Robinson then partnered Sealey at the crease and looked solid in defense early in his innings. The innings suffered another slight blow when Sealey was stumped leaving the hosts 60 odd for 2.

Bryan Melliard then came to the crease and put away some loose leg side bowling from the Fillongley spinners before being caught at cover to an excellent diving catch. The hero from the last round, Stef Jagielski, came in with another 60 runs required for victory. His partnership with Robinson, who by this time had his eye in and reached his half-century, saw the Bank to within a few runs of victory before Jagielski was bowled looking to finish the game with a big hit. Andy Alexander came in but it was Robinson who finished the game with a quickly run single that saw the hero take a nasty blow on the back from the fielded ball. Bank ended up winning with a margin of 6 wickets and a healthy four overs to spare.

The next game is at home to Northamtonshire’s Stockton on Sunday 12th July.

If we play you next year it may even be flat! We are hoping for a dry enough post season to enable the levelling of it (should have been done last year hence the mess by the nets!)

As for the cakes. Too right. Did you see the size of some of our players? If we had salads we’d be even better.