Westbury & District Cricket club travelled to play Swindon Cricket Club on Saturday 12th July in their latest fixture in the West of England Premier League Wiltshire Division. On what was a scorching summer’s day Westbury captain Kane Scott won the toss and elected to bat first.
Westbury’s innings got off to a disappointing start when Charlie Rumistrzewicz was out bowled to a delivery that stayed very low. Dan Gill was in at number three, joining Javon Grosvenor at the crease. The pair started to lay a foundation for the innings in the face of some good bowling and what looked like a difficult wicket to bat on. The pair put on a 32-run partnership before Grosvenor was out to a very good catch on the boundary.
Adam Alger was the next man in and in hot conditions both Alger and Gill rotated the strike whilst putting the rare bad ball away for four. Disaster then struck for Westbury when both batters were out in the space of six balls, both to shots which they will be disappointed with. First Alger was out bowled for 15, then Gill was out caught and bowled to the Swindon spinner for 30 leaving the Westbury score on 82-4.
This brought the explosive middle order to the crease of Tom Lucas and Fraser Moore. Predictably the boundaries soon started to come for both batters with the highlight being Tom Lucas’s six that hit the football club stand. Unfortunately, this was all too short lived with Westbury losing another cluster of wickets close together with Fraser Moore, Aidan Wicks and Tom Lucas all out in quick succession to leave Westbury struggling on 129-7.
Once again it was down to Rich Oakley and captain Kane Scott to see if they could bat Westbury to a respectable score that the bowlers might be able to defend. As always Oakley showed his stubbornness and determination to bat out the 50 overs which Westbury has found tough to do on so many occasions this season. Scott managed to stick with Oakley for a while before being trapped LBW for 12.
It was then some good lower order hitting from both Luke Dilena and Henry White in the last eight overs, along with the scampering from Oakley which got Westbury up to a respectable 191-9 off their 50 overs with Oakley finishing 24 not out.
Going out for the 2nd innings Westbury new that a big effort in very tough conditions would be required if there was any chance of a victory. Westbury got off to a great start with Grosvenor bowling the Swindon’s overseas player out for 0 with a ball that again stayed low. Westbury weren’t able to capitalise on the early breakthrough and while Rich Oakley bowled yet another great spell of 10 overs for just 28 runs he was unable to add any more wickets to his tally for the season.
Westbury were hoping that their spin bowlers would be able to make use of the very dry wicket to raise the pressure on the set Swindon batters. While Charlie Rumistrzewicz has been by far Westbury’s best bowler this season, he had a bit of an off day and was finding it had to find his line and length. While Rumistrzewicz did take the wicket of the remaining Swindon opener with the help of a catch from Tom Lucas in the slips, all too many balls were going to the boundary for four.
After the drinks break, Rumistrzewicz changed end and with this came a change of luck with him being back to his brilliant best and picking up three much-needed wickets and leaving the Swindon score on 140-5. Charlie finished his allotted overs with bowling figures of 10 overs, four wickets for 56 runs.
With Swindon edging closer to victory Westbury gave it one last throw of the dice with Javon Grosvenor returning to bowl spin rather than his usual fast bowling. This decision soon paid off with him claiming the wicket off the set batsman who had made what turned out to be a match winning 55 runs. While this gave Westbury a small glimmer of hope the extreme heat had taken its toll and with the score they had set when batting being 30-40 runs short, they just had nothing else left to give.
In the end Swindon ran out deserved winners by four wickets in a game that was played hard and fair in a great spirit. Westbury remain second from bottom of the league but will be looking to take the positives into next week’s local derby away to Trowbridge Cricket Club.
Elsewhere within the club there were stand out performances from Ben Whiting who scored 107 in the 2nd XI’s defeat by Christian Malford and a match winning 140 from Nick Ridout leading the 3rd XI to victory against Calne’s 4th XI.
Upcoming Fixtures
Sat 19th July Trowbridge 1st XI vs Westbury & District 1st XI (A) 12pm League
Sat 26th July Westbury & District 1st XI vs Avebury 1st XI (H) 12pm League
Sat 2nd August Potterne 2nd XI vs Westbury & District 1st XI (A) 12pm League
