Bridgwater CC 155 / 6 (20.0) def. Taunton St Andrews CC 140 / 5 (20.0)

BRIDGWATER Cricket Club have retained the Baker Cup T20 competition after defeating Taunton St Andrews last week.

The defending champions were too good in the final played at the Cooper Associates County Ground, winning by 15 runs.

In a replay of last year's final, Taunton St Andrews were unable to best the Bridgwater side.

In the match, key performances from Alex Eckland who scored 35 not out and Seth Locke who took two wickets, helped Bridgwater to victory.

Bridgwater won the toss and elected to bat first, sending out Chris Skidmore and Harminder Singh to open.

Singh was the first to lose his wicket for 11 runs, replacing him at the crease was Charlie Sharland.

Skidmore was eventually out for 35 runs from 28 balls after he had put Bridgwater in a strong spot.

Sharland was joined by Eckland and the pair made further progress in the innings.

Skipper Stuart Butt added a further 34 runs towards the end of the 20 overs and after they were up, Bridgwater had set the target at 155/6.

Will Christophers and James Matravers both took two wickets for Taunton St Andrews in the innings, and to their credit, the bowlers did a good job restricting the runs.

Bridgwater would have felt like the target was a defendable one, but that being said, a tough task was ahead.

The opening pair of James Regan and Kevin Parsons made the best start possible for Taunton as well.

Regan scored a half century of 54 runs from 35 balls and Parsons added 32 runs to kick things off well.

However Seth Locke stepped up to dismiss both openers in relatively quick time to turn the tide back in Bridgwater's favour.

Toby Williams-Thomas added 28 runs to push the Saints closer to the target however the wickets of Gabriel Gallmann-Findlay (16), Will Christophers (14 not out) and Josh Clatworthy (0) brought things to an end.

Taunton ran out of balls to face in the end, despite putting in a very good effort. 

Bridgwater did hang on towards the end but the winning margin of 15 runs was perhaps a fair reflection on the match.

A deserved victory for a strong Bridgwater side, winning the Baker Cup two years in a row is no small feat.