Frome Falcons won their opening fixture of the ECB Under 19 Club T20 away at Timsbury Miners, in a highly entertaining encounter.
After being put into bat at the toss, Frome got off to a flyer. Joe Smart got the boundary count going when he hit four of the second delivery of the match, before Sam Croker tickled the final ball of the over down to fine leg for four.
The runs continued to flow, and the first ball of the fourth over was dispatched by Smart for an effortless maximum. With the score on 36 though, Smart was bowled by T Parfitt later in the fourth over, for 20 off 13 deliveries.
Frome continued to show the necessary positive intent in the powerplay, but after a pull for four, Jake Barrow was caught at mid-off for 7 off of Lenihan’s bowling.
Dan Lock accompanied Croker, and they steadied things up. The bad balls were put away excellently, and Croker was particularly driving the ball well through the off-side- showing that ease and grace still has an impact in the shorter format of the game.
Frome ended the powerplay on 53-2 from the six overs, and Lock and Croker carried the Falcons onto 120. Lock found his feet with a maximum as pressure was asserted on the home bowlers. He was the third batsmen to fall though, bowled by M Hackett for 39 off 44.
Skipper Mark Watts was then cleaned up next ball, before soon after Sam Croker had to retire after passing his fifty. His knock of 51 came at a good pace, having faced 41 balls of which included 7 fours.
The Frome lower order looked to add as many late runs as possible, but Hackett (4-25) uprooted both Isaac Wood’s (5) and Arthur Harman (0) stumps, whilst Taylor Angel was run out for 1. This left the Falcons 145-7.
In the final over, Aaron Woodruff departed first ball for 10, caught behind off O Knight. Ethan Cox and Daniel Weston both finished not out on 2, with the Frome Falcons ending their 20 overs on 151-9.
In response, things didn’t start too great for Frome, with the opening three overs seeing Timsbury advance to 26 without loss. The key breakthrough came with the first ball of the fourth over though, when Wood took a fantastic high catch to dismiss the dangerous Hackett (17) off Woodruff.
The next over saw the captain get the Falcons second, comprehensively bowling G Brinkworth for 1 to reduce Timsbury to 27-2.
Timsbury ended the six-over powerplay on 43-2.
Harman secured figures of 3-27 from his four overs as S Thompson was bowled for 10, and after 12 overs the hosts were 78-5.
Weston and Croker’s leg-spin then made things difficult for the home batsmen.
Watts bowled a tight over to leave Timsbury on 119-5 off 17, before Woodruff castled Lenihan (21) and L Bond-Kendall in consecutive deliveries. Knight (2) was run out and Timsbury were 123-8.
Watts (2-19) made it 126-9 by bowling D Nesbitt for a duck, and completed a superb spell of bowling from the skipper. Parfitt’s (34) efforts were ended with a catch from Harman off of Woodruff (4-19).
The Falcons had bowled Timsbury out for 134, of which earned them a 17 run victory that gets their inaugural campaign off to a flyer.
