Last over victory for the Seasiders

WESTON won another thrilling encounter in the Globe Sports West of England Premier League top division, chasing down 213 in the last over against Bath.

Bath won the toss and elected to bat first, but were left ruing their decision when Campbell only managed to make it to the fourth over before David Stiff (2-54) trapped him leg before wicket for two.

Scoring was slow, so by the time Robin d'Souza (3-50) has Barrow caught behind by Rob Holman in the 15th over the total had only progressed to 35, however, this brought the experienced Ben Staunton in to join Robin Lett, and a century stand soon followed.

In an occasionally lucky passage of play, Lett (120) found himself mostly on strike as the runs began to flow and with Staunton (38) happy to support Lett worked his way past his half century and on towards three figures.

This partnership was halted by Ashley Allen's (2-48) return to the first XI as he removed Staunton caught behind and Ross Jenkins caught in the slips in consecutive balls to leave Bath on 152- 4 with 10 overs remaining.

Patient batting brought up Lett's ton and a target of over 200 as Weston toiled in the heat, but two good run-outs meant that Weston needed 214 to win.

In reply, Weston hit the required run rate early on, but with Gloucestershire spinner Vickram Banerjee set to come into the attack any result was possible. Gary Morgan (22) and Holman (20) consolidated after the early loss of Edd Brown, and with the pitch becoming low and slow d'Souza and John Williams had to apply themselves to keep Weston in a winning position.

D'Souza batted sensibly for his half-century before unleashing and crucially departing in the 53rd over for 75 with Weston still needing 20. Andy Fear (21) followed soon after and it looked like a step too far for Weston to record a long time coming victory against Bath, but Stiff eased the pressure with consecutive boundaries off Davies, leaving only six needed from the last over. Bath lost their heads in the attempt to deny Weston victory, but Stiff and Shabil Ahmed kept their heads to win with two balls to spare, and record another 27 points.

Weston 2nds made it consecutive defeats, going down by five wickets against a perennially strong Bath side.

Having won the toss and elected to bat on what looked to be a good batting wicket, Bath bowled extremely well with the new ball and made it hard for Weston to score runs. Weston lost early wickets leaving them 47-3 off 15 overs, but a good partnership from Rob Scanlon (43) and Andy Logan (42), together with some big hitting from Paul Stringer (19) and Matt Humphrey (24) helped Weston reach a defendable total of 191-7 off 45 overs.

The first half of the game was fraught with injuries; Logan was forced to retire hurt with a rib injury but not before top edging opening bowler, Alex Muse, into bath wicketkeeper, Steve Griffiths' forehead. Griffiths was taken to hospital by paramedics with a nasty gash to the head but fortunately escaped with just a few stitches.

After tea Weston struck early with a wicket from Luke Parfitt, but some strong early partnerships from Bath took advantage of some indifferent and sometimes wayward Weston bowling. With Bath only 50 runs way from victory Weston fought back with a further two wickets from Parfitt, one from Tom Main and a stunning run-out by Andre Belcher, but it was not quite early enough, as Bath crossed the line with 10 overs to spare, in the process moving above Weston into second place in the table.

Weston 3rds got their season back on track thanks to a comprehensive 113- run win against Stanton Drew.

After winning the toss and electing to bat on a belter of a track with a rapid outfield, Weston got off to the worst possible start as Mark Bissex (1) and Matt Rihan (0) both played on and were back in the hutch with just 7seven runs on the board.

This bought Jason Lane to the crease who steadily began to rebuild the innings with the Dancey brothers, Tom (15) and Ben (9). Once Ben was dismissed with the score on 69, it looked to be an even contest, an equilibrium that Lane and Simon Biddle soon redressed. Benefitting from a defensive field setting from the outset of the partnership, both players were able to milk singles at will, as well as striking an inevitable boundary which saw the scoreboard rattle along at the best part of nine an over.

By the time the partnership had been broken, Lane caught and bowled for a superb 128 from just 97 balls, 162 runs had been added with 10 overs still left in the innings.

Biddle soon followed, also caught and bowled, for a season's best 66 but the fireworks continued as Mike Lee (28 from 14) and Justin Turner (35 from 14) took the score over the 300 mark, the innings closing on 312-7, Gary Smart being the pick of the Stanton Drew bowlers with 3-67.

In reply, Stanton Drew made a good start, but with the rate required as high as eight an over from the outset it always looked a tall order, especially once Stu Roberts (8-2-17-4) and Lane (6-1-21-1) bowled economically in the middle overs to check any progress.

Further wickets fell to Ricky Bissex (2-42) and Turner (1-54) and a run-out from Tom Dancey as The Druids innings petered out to 199-9 from their allotted 40, Smart again impressing with 40 and David Dart with 35.

Brunel Ford Man of the Match goes to Jason Lane.

With one car somehow managing to get to Michael Wood rather than turning off on to the M4 and two disputants, it looked to be an interesting day for the Eaglets.

As per the norm, Jon lost the toss and the Eaglets were fielding. Starting with only nine men forced a quite defensive field from the outset which was not a bad thing. Rhys removed one of their openers in his first over then the other in his second, leaving Exiles on 16-2. Cleverly (74 not out) and Allard (50) knuckled down then to bring some order to the Exiles' batting, putting on a partnership of 104. Weston's undoing was the 53 extras including 34 wides.

After a superb tea it was time for the Eaglets to attempt to score more runs than they have in any game so far. With Pete and Jon putting on 54 for the first wicket in pretty quick time, everything seemed to be going swimmingly. But then James Allard removed Pete with an almost unplayable ball and quickly followed up with the same ball removing Dan Lomax, leaving Weston 60-2 and two of their in form batsmen back in the changing rooms. Fortunately Flo then batted a sensible innings with her (22) and Jon (117 not out) putting together an 8- run partnership. Entering the last 10 needing 70ish with eight wickets in hand the Exiles were understandably a tad worried.

Four wickets then fell with only 14 runs added and players still wondered why Jon told Flo not to get out. Eight an over for the last five should have been a walk in the park, but it was not to be. Some good straight bowling from Long saw the Eaglets needing 18 from the last over which was going to be a tall order in any game and they came up some six runs short. Weston man of the match was Jon Lawrence