WESTBURY travelled to play Thornbury in the final away fixture in West of England League Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Premier 2 Division match hoping to complete a season double over their opponents and also to put pressure on the top two teams Cheltenham and Goatacre in the league.
Westbury made one change from last weeks narrow 20 run win against Burbage and Royal Easton with Dan Gill coming in for the unavailable Brannon Varley.
Thornbury won the toss and immediately decided to bat first. They opened with Dan Davis and Josh Slade and they made a steady start against the Westbury opening attack of Carroll and Oakley. When the total reached 13 Westbury struck for the first time when Slade was caught in the slips by Dickinson off the bowling of Carroll for 7.
Wormwell then joined Davis at the wicket and they took the total to 27 when Dan Davis (15) and Wormwell (3) were both dismissed. Luke Davis, the Thornbury captain was joined at the wicket by Danny Slade and they weathered the storm and they took the total to 76 when Westbury struck twice in succession when Slade was trapped leg before sweeping against the Westbury spinner Hudson for 23.
Shortly afterwards Davis was caught by Carroll off the bowling of the Westbury captain Sennex for 42. It was at this time that Hudson with the support of Senneck had the Thornbury lower order in a lot of trouble by taking four wickets for the loss of 41 runs. It was only a last wicket partnership of 27 between Morris (22) and Malitte (11) that Thornbury eventually reached 144 all out, and was fitting that Hudson took the last wicket to finish with 5 wickets for 35. He was ably supported by Carroll (2-23) and Senneck (2-34).
When Westbury batted they made a flying start by posting the first 50 in 23 minutes off 51 balls with Whiting being the dominant batsman. When the total reached 90 Coles completed his 50 off 41 balls in 27 minutes and it came as a big surprise,with the total at 96, that Thornbury made a breakthrough when Coles was caught in the deep by Dan Davis off the bowling of Malitte for 56.
Then the inform batsman Mills joined Whiting at the wickets. Both batsman then with no undue alarms, took Westbury home to a convincing 9 wickets win. Shortly before the end Whiting completed his 50 off 50 balls in 66 minutes.
With both Cheltenham and Goatacre winning and playing each other in the final league game with the league title at sake, Westbury will finish in second or third place depending on the result. This has been a fine season for Westbury in the league having only come up last year.
James Hudson was the man of the match for his 5 wickets for 35.
