Saturday 11th June Downend 1st XI won by 5 wickets Frome 1st XI – 160 all out (44.2 overs) Downend 1st XI – 163-5 (31.1 overs)
FROME fell to a 5 wicket defeat at the hands of Downend after another top order batting failure led to the host’s downfall.
Frome were asked to bat first on a warm summer’s afternoon, where they were looking to put on a good show in front of their home support. However, a very similar batting story followed when Frome lost their first 3 wickets with only 30 on the board. Downend openers Desai and Louch bowled excellently to put the home batters under pressure throughout and there was no let up.
For the second week in a row, Frome found themselves 7 wickets down for 70, leaving the bowlers needing to provide a serious fight to even get the hosts to a batting point. Luckily for Frome, Tom Barton was up for the fight. He produced an excellent 49 and put on a valuable 33 run partnership with Harman for the 10th wicket before Frome were bowled out for 160.
In reply, Downed started well moving the score quickly onto 27 and leaving Frome desperate for wickets to have any hope of producing an unlikely win. Luckily, that man Barton again was the one who provided some hope, removing three top order batters for just 37.
Unfortunately for Frome, Grieshaber wasn’t in the mood to give Frome any sort of hope of pulling off a victory, having already produced a fine keeping display, he then scored a chance-less 86 not out to lead Downend to victory having lost just the 5 wickets.
Frome again look back on a disappointing top order display which led to their defeat.
• Saturday’s game, 18th June, against league leaders Bristol CC was abandoned. Bristol were on 197 for 3 when the game was called off.
