Captain’s men suffer defeat

JAH Eyles XI v Mid Norton Methodists

Saturday saw the annual meeting of the Methodists and a team selected by club captain Jim Eyles.

Eyles’ invited players included Steve Green, Dave Harvey and Paul Justin from Midsomer Norton 3rd XI, Roy Bobbett of Dinder & Croscombe and Bob Jones, Henry Thomas and Pete Wenmoth, all former Methodists regulars.

The Eyles XI were asked to bat first, with Harvey and John Baker opening the innings for the visitors and getting off to an assured start with 39 for the first wicket before Baker was bowled by a low-bouncing delivery from Matthew Sackett.

This brought Bobbett to the crease and he and the Norton opener continued to stroke the ball around until Harvey was trapped lbw by a Stuart Green full toss for 34.

Justin joined Bobbett with the score on 59-3 and the pair amassed 66 runs during the next 18 overs, including two Justin maximums.

The pair were parted with the score on 125 when Justin was bowled for 46, but Bobbett (31no) remained unbeaten as he guided the Eyles XI to 158-5 from their 40 overs.

In reply, the Methodists lost Richard Wilkins in the fourth over when he unluckily edged a Wenmoth delivery on to his stumps. David Baker came to the middle to join remaining opener Dan Forshaw, who together saw off the initial spells of Wenmoth and Green.

With just 12 runs on the board after ten overs, the Methodists batsmen went after the spin bowling of skipper Eyles and all-rounder Justin, hitting 49 runs from the next ten overs.

With the score on 96-1 from 24 overs, Eyles brought back his opening bowlers but Forshaw and Baker were now into their stride and it made no difference in the scoring rate.

Baker was belatedly caught in Green’s last over after contributing 63 runs to a second-wicket partnership of 127 alongside Forshaw who finished on 66 not out – his highest score for the club.

The Methodists needed 28 from the final nine overs, a task which was completed with ten balls to spare and eight wickets in hand.