WEPL Premier One Second XI

Bridgwater 2nd XI 201 lost to Frocester 208-7 by seven runs

BRIDGWATER’S batsmen were left to rue simple unforced errors at home to Frocester on Saturday, narrowly losing out by seven runs.

After electing to bowl first, openers Dan Rossiter (0-30) and Tim Hill (0-19) looked threatening but were unlucky not to make a breakthrough as Frocester built their innings steadily.

However, the introduction of Ed Habberfield (2-37) did the trick for Bridgwater as he removed Whincup who was caught behind the wicket by Stu Standerwick.

Callum Gegg (58) continued to bat carefully but Bridgwater’s bowlers did well to restrict the visitors’ scoring rate as the Frocester innings moved into the middle stages.

Habberfield, Scott Clapp (2-37) and Todd Barrett (2-38) made regular breakthroughs throughout the middle and latter stages of the innings but some poor bowling from the home side, combined with some good hitting from the Frocester lower middle order, meant that the visitors posted a competitive 208 in their allotted overs.

Bridgwater lost Ben Coombes early in their reply as he was bowled by Dan Cave for just three but Barrett and Hill set about chasing down Frocester’s target before Hill (12) was also bowled by Cave with the score at 39-2.

Barrett (29) and Witts (49) built a good partnership to take Bridgwater into a strong position at the drinks break, however, when the former was caught on the deep midwicket boundary, Bridgwater suffered a middle order collapse, losing three wickets for just 21 runs.

Ben Whitemore (21) and Ed Habberfield (33) moved Bridgwater closer to the target as the game entered the latter stages and it looked as if Bridgwater may just get across the line until more wickets put the brakes on the chase.

Bridgwater entered the last over needing a further nine runs for victory but both Habberfield and Standerwick fell to the off-spin of Jonathan Dow, as Bridgwater disappointingly came up seven seven runs short in a close game.