Bradninch beat Abbotskerswell in warm-up friendly

BRADNINCH defeated Abbotskerswell by 31 runs in a pre-season warm-up game, writes Steve Birley.

With 1st XI captain Gary Chappell, and last year’s skipper Eliot Acton together with Mitch Pugh amongst a cluster of regulars not available for the game, Ross Acton took charge of the home XI and there was also a return to ‘Ninch’ colours for Tim Piper.

Acton won the toss and opted to bat and he played a key part in his side closing their 40 overs on 222 for nine.

Acton top scored with a 37-ball 44, all but four of his runs coming in boundaries, and there were other important contributions from Darren Paul (43 off 35), Aryan Raigangar (32 off 34), Lewis Rhodes (22 off 27) and 19 from opener Josh Farley.

For Abbotskerswell, the pick of the bowling returns was the 2-17 from five sent down by Jake Fox while teenager James Tyler (2-27 from five), Charlie Smout-Cooper (1-21), Chris Meikle (1-21), Darren Clayton (1-22) and Chris Clough (1-44), were the other wicket takers.

Back in the hutch

In their reply, Abbotskerswell were 46-2 after 9.3 overs with both openers, Eddie Smout-Cooper (17) and Charlie Hill (5) back in the hutch. Jason Parr (13 from 25) and Charlie Smout-Cooper (18 off 29) were next to go, leaving the Abbots on 78 for five

Ben Cowdry was joined by Chris Clough and the pair put bat to ball with great effect, adding 90 in just 44 deliveries. Clough bludgeoned his way to a 24-ball 56 before retiring with his wicket intact.

However, from 168-5 from one ball shy of 26 overs to a closing total of 191-9 after 31.3 overs with Ben Cowdry the not out batsman on 23 from 48 balls faced, leaving Bradninch winners by a margin of 31 runs.