Uphill Castle CC thirds fell to another defeat this by Frome CC thirds at Mells Cricket Ground on Saturday.

There had been heavy downpour in the morning and due to the ground not having access to any covers the wicket was wet and unpredictable.

The toss was won by Frome who unsurprisingly elected to field considering the conditions.

Play started at 1.30 with Hallam Bickell opening alongside Harry Frake for Uphill. Frake was unfortunately dismissed for one in the second ball of the third over, caught and bowled by Ben Cooper, after the ball popped up off the wicket.

Ian Harrington then made his way to the crease and slowly began to build a partnership with Bickell.

As he began to settle into the game, Harrington began to increase the scoring rate for Uphill and scored 16 runs in the ninth over.

A strong partnership began to form with 57 runs scored between them until the call for a quick single was made, unfortunately a direct hit resulted in the run out of Harrington on 46 runs.

This was the captains second good batting performance in a row, narrowly missing out on his 50, after his half century last time out against Wedmore seconds. Wez Bryant then came out to replace Harrington at the non-strikers end of the wicket.

Following the Captain's dismissal, an unfortunate collapse in the batting order began with Bickell being dismissed for 15 runs, only one ball after the dismissal of Harrington.

The ball to dismiss Bickell came from a short length but stayed down and did not bounce at all off the pitch, hitting middle stump.

This wicket was then followed by the wicket of Bryant who had caught the inside edge of his bat hitting the ball into his stump off an unplayable yorker delivery. This left Uphill at 68-4 in the 16th over.

Dave Wilcox then entered the field alongside Toby Robinson as Uphill began to reach the latter end of the batting order much earlier than would have liked in the 40 over game.

Two overs later in the 18th over, Robinson was dismissed by an identical ball to the dismissal of Frake at the beginning of the game, with a caught and bowled by Chris Glover of Frome.

The dismissals of Dave Wilcox for 13 and Graeme Wigg for 3 then followed, along with the LBW of Andy Leech. Charlie Beal and Pete Jobling then came to the crease with Beal being dismissed third ball after being caught in the slip.

Salman Habibkheil then joined Pete Jobling scoring five runs between them before Habibkheil was caught at mid on with three runs.

Uphill Castle ended their batting innings with 95 all out from 30.4 overs. It was a harsh day for the visitors having to bat on such an unpredictable wicket and with 3 batsmen out for 0, with only three batsmen reaching double figures.

Despite the unfortunate innings, Uphill went out to field with heads high and ready to prevent as many runs as possible.

Jobling opened the bowling with Leech hoping to get the same results off the wicket as Frome had in the first innings. Uphill started the innings with a wicket off the bowling of Pete Jobling through a run out by Charlie Beal.

Jobling and Leach bowled the first 16 overs between them, eight each, only conceding 44 runs. They delivered some fine bowling, yet the balls missed the stumps by the slightest degree, somehow, on several occasions.

They were then replaced by Beal and Habibkheil who both suffered with multiple missed chances and Beal finding the inside edge of the batsmen’s bat which missed the stumps by the barest of margins.

In the following over, Salman managed to find the top edge of the bat which went just out of reach of Wiggs’s keeping gloves.

The wicket had continued to be unpredictable throughout the second innings, but not quite as unpredictable as that in the first innings. Frome’s Mike Cooper and Chris Glover chased down the total in 23 overs due to a strong innings with Cooper Scoring 45 and Glover scoring 49.

Despite the loss, Uphill Castle had fielded exceptionally well with few miss-fields and only two wides during the 23 overs.

Uphill Castle thirds are still chasing that first win of the season ahead of Saturday's eighth match of the season against Burnham-on-Sea seconds.

However, Uphill are growing ever stronger with all players contributing to the game, helping with the development and growth of the team.