Bridestowe 2XI vs. Plympton 3XI - 18/05/19

Back at the home of Devon cricket, the Super 2s were hoping to get back to winning ways against the visiting Plympton 3rds . With the wicket looking green and the sky overcast, the toss of the coin was vital. And true to form, skip lost the toss and we were asked to bat first. With 'I’m not batting there I want to bat here' and 'I bat anywhere but not there', the batting order was decided under a few protests. After much deliberation, Griffiths and the gleaming white Buzz (still parading around in his new gear) strode out to bat. Griffiths decided he was going to take his time to play himself in as it’s been a while since he's been at the crease without swinging at everything. This was much to the annoyance of the Plympton opening bowlers and the nonstop appealing from the keeper. With the score on 20-something Griffiths finally went for a swing and a miss 13, with Buzz soon following suit to depart for 10. Shaw went 2nd ball for a duck, Callum two balls later lbw for another duck... 34 for 4 and in all sorts of trouble! Jack Shaw strode out to meet Ian and after a short discussion they set about seeing out the opening pair of bowlers. With Ian ticking along and the wides adding up, both seemed to be comfortable with the score moving passed the 50 mark. Just as the opening bowlers finished, Jack got one that popped up sharply and he edged to slip for a resilient 0 after supporting Ian well. Skip (formerly known as blind pew) entered the fray, but soon returned for 2. Paul Burder joined Ian at the crease and was blocking well against the Devon ladies bowler Pittman, who was getting an incredible amount of inswing from the road end. Ian eventually fell for 11, bowled by Pittman after a very long stay in difficult swinging conditions. Paul Alford, making his long awaited return to BCC, stayed for a while to support Burder but eventually went lbw. Anthony Jutson went first ball before 'I’m going to fall off a ladder and injure my arm' Harris entered the fray. He got the score moving again (mostly with the help of wides) and managed to get us to 83 before he was out. That left Burder stranded on 8 not out (a significant score in the conditions!). E. Xtras was comfortably top scorer with 25 and Pittman was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets to her name.

With 15 overs to be bowled before the tea Skip opened with himself and the moody Shaw, who clearly wanted tea and with clouds in the sky, the game should be off anyway. Juston opened the bowling and drew a few play and misses. Same result from Shaw's opening over, and same again from Jutson. Hello, this is a bit edgy we could get something from this. Shaw's 2nd over bowls the opening bat middle stump. Next over, same result again and Jutson then joined in by trapping a plum lbw. Plympton wobbling at 16 for 3. Then 21 for 4 as Shaw takes another with a diving catch from Jutson behind the stumps. Shaw then bowled another and Plympton were really wobbling 24 for 5 at tea.

After tea, Shaw finished his last over with great figures of 8-2-9-4. A Jutson joined in and takes the off stump 24 for 6 Burder joined the attack and... boom the spin king takes one with his 2nd ball! A nice catch form Jutson behind the stumps. A couple of swings moves the score on to 50 for 7 before A Jutson has one caught nicely by uncle Lee at mid off... 50 for 8. Ant finishes with excellent figures of 5-0-18-2. Spin king Burder takes another caught by Buzz safely off his chest into his hands at mid on 55-9. Lee back on to finish his economical spell of 8-0-22-1. Spin king Burder (5-2-11-3) finished the game with his 3rd wicket, bowling the last bat to reduce Plympton to 61 all out. So what looked like defeat with the bat turned out to be a great win. Nice to see Paul Alford make his return to Briddy and some great fielding from the boy with no name and A Jutson helped Briddy to the points. Next week is a difficult game away to Chudleigh 2s.