Westbury travelled to play Rockhampton who are struggling in the West of England League Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Premier 2 Division, hoping to put behind them last week’s defeat against Dumbleton.
Westbury made 4 changes from last week’s game, with Osmond Shallow, Arran Dickinson, Ian Pinchen and Luke Dilena coming in for Ben Whiting, Michael Coles, Sayeed Ibrahim and Kane Scott.
Rockhampton won the toss and decided to field first. Westbury opened with a new combination of Sam Burdock and Osmond Shallow and they made a flying start with the first 50 coming up in the 10th over. When the total reached 55 Rockhampton struck by having Shallow bowled by Willoughby for 19. Burdock was joined at the wicket by Mills and at first they found scoring difficult due to the fine bowling of the Rockhampton first change bowlers Willoughby and Nicholls, but when the total reached 73, Rockhampton struck again by having Burdock bowled off the bottom edge of the bat by Nichols for a good 36. This brought in the standin captain Esau to join Mills.
Westbury took the total to 116 when Esau was caught in the deep by Will Tyler for 14. Mills who was then joined by Gill at the wicket and shortly after, Gill was out for 0 caught behind by Cartlidge off the bowling of the Rockhampton captain Wakefield. On the dismissal of Gill brought in Dickinson and they made their intentions clear by attacking the bowling. When the total reached 177, Mills completed his second league 50 of the season.
At the end of Westbury’s allotted overs they accumulated 194 for 4 wickets, Mills was unbeaten on 60 and his colleague Dickinson unbeaten on 36. Willoughby had the outstanding figures ( 10-4-18-1) which put Westbury on the back foot.
When Rockhampton batted in search of 195 to win, they made a bad start when Matt Tyler was dismissed for 15 caught behind off the bowling of the Westbury captain Esau. Wakefield was then joined at the wicket of Brothwood and they gradually got on top and they took the total to 74 when Brothwood was dismissed for 31, caught by Esau in the slips off the bowling of Mills. Will Tyler then joined Wakefield at the wicket.
When the total reached 117 Westbury struck again when Tyler was brilliantly caught at slip by Dickinson for 13 off the bowling of Mills. Collins then joined Wakefield at the wicket and they took the total to 144 when Collins was out for 8 bowled by Mills. Rowan Cartlidge, the Rockhampton wicketkeeper, then joined his captain at the wicket; they continued to score runs confidently and with no further alarms, they took their team to a six wicket win. At the end of the innings, Wakefield was unbeaten on 86 and Cartlidge was also unbeaten on 29.
Chantry Digital, Westbury man of the match, Richard Mills.
