Uphill Castle’s winning start to the new season

UPHILL Castle’s season got off to an excellent start, both in the league and the national village knockout.

Uphill hosted newly-promoted North Petherton for the first time and Luke Bliss won the toss and Petherton were invited to bat.

Some early pressure from opening bowler George Cox and Krish Kumar saw a couple of easy chances go down, allowing Petherton to have a good opening stand. Bliss made the first breakthough trapping Stone lbw for 18.

Wickets fell regularly with only Williams 56 and Gibbs 34 not out made any impression. Petherton managed a total of 165 all out in the 46th over, a figure which should have been much less due to 26 extras and four dropped catches.

Pick of the bowlers was debutant Simon Cattermole with 4-33 from 10 overs.

Uphill set about the chase in a positive manner, but again made hard work of it before securing victory. Belcher (23) and Winn (32) got Uphill off to a great start before Winn was lbw.

Belcher followed soon after, before Kumar, supported by Cattermole (17) set about the bowling with a rapid 63, which included nine fours and three sixes.

With Uphill heading for a seemingly comfortable victory at 132-2, five wickets fell before Petherton’s total of 165 was passed in the 33rd over.

The following day, Uphill progressed to the next round of the village knockout with a three wicket win over Stapleton.

Uphill restricted the hosts to 200 from the allotted 40 overs. Highlights being 1-16 from Marcus Bail off nine overs and 4-36 from George Chapman, but on the downside, 47 extras were given away.

Uphill reached the target with three overs to spare with an excellent 61 from Andre Belcher and Andy Llewellyn saw the side home with an undefeated 38.

Uphill now entertain Bishops Lydeard in the next round on Sunday.

NORTH PETHERTON

E Stone lbw Bliss 18

T Williams lbw Cattermole 56

D Tottle b Cox 18

H Bowditch lbw Cattermole 4

O Irish b Cox 0

L Irish lbw Cattermole 2

T Gibbs not out 34

L Irish b Kumar 2

L Knight b Cattermole 0

A Bunce st Disney b Bail 5

T Smith b Bail 0

Extras 26

Total 165

Bowling: G Cox 10-1-29-2; K Kumar 10-2-25-1; M Bail 7.5-0-31.2; L Bliss 5-1-21-1; H Watts 3-0-15-0; S Cattermole 10-2-33-4.

UPHILL CASTLE

S Winn lbw Lewis Irish 32

A Belcher c Lloyd Irish b Lewis Irish 23

S Cattermole lbw O Irish 17

K Kumar b Bunce 63

L Bliss c & b O Irish 0

D Millard not out 4

H Watts c Bowditch b Smith 14

C Disney c & b Knight 2

G Cox not out 0

Extras 11

Total (7 wkts) 166

THE seconds travelled to Long Sutton for their opening Somerset League match and were asked to bat first after losing the toss.

Despite the slow conditions, Mark Hodder (18) and Tom Oultram (32) put on 43 for the first wicket. After that, other contributions came from skipper Andy Llewellyn (29), Jake Llewellyn (20) and Dave Bickell (12), before evergreen Ray Dibben made a useful 27 not out to give Uphill a total of 168-8 from their allotted 45 overs.

Long Sutton went into bat on a drying wicket and soon lost their opening batsman to a fine slip catch by Andy Llewellyn off the bowling of James Holt. With the introduction of George Chapman bringing two stumpings for Dibben, the home side were reduced to 50-3.

However, the home side’s middle order set about the recovery and took control of the match, steering them to the target with 10 overs to go, winning the match by six wickets.

George Chapman (2-65), Matt Kearsey (1-35) and James Holt (1-13) were the pick of the bowlers.

The Autosmart man of the match was Ray Dibben.