This weekend's game saw 2nd place in the table take on 3rd

On an overcast day and a green wicket, we were happy when Almondsbury won the toss and elected to bat. An opportunity for us to put them under considerable pressure when we took to the field.

A new opening bowling partnership saw Ollie Gooding team up with Nick Lawrence for the first time this season showcasing a fine display of swing bowling reducing the visitors to 28-2. Almondsbury consolidated well, fighting back with a partnership of 83 despite some very economical bowling from Sam Bowery and backed up by Alex Nathanson. We felt very much on top in the game despite the lack of wickets, restricting the opposition's run rate. However despite our best efforts Almondsbury used their platform to showcase their power hitting ability in the final 12 overs, making a target of the small boundary. Batsmen 5 and 6 coming to the crease and hitting 100 runs off 47 balls between them turned the momentum in their favour going into the second half of the game. Despite the late flurry of runs, the team worked hard to the end and with Almondsbury setting us a target of 251, we were quietly confident this was certainly a getable target at Combe Park.

New opening pairing saw Dan Veal and Adam Carlin make a very healthy start to the run chase. With a great solid display of batting and shots all around the ground, a stand of 93 for the first wicket put us in a great position with Adam just falling short of his half century on 46, and Dan getting there a couple of overs later. We kept chipping away at the total with Sam Bowery continuing his fine form with the bat adding 38 more runs to his tally for the season. However we were losing wickets at regular intervals but with 200-6 on the board we felt in a strong position with our batting line up we'd get the job done. Some good bowling from Almondbury put the pressure back on us, and the loss of the last 4 wickets for 9 runs unfortunately put a disappointing end to our run chase.

With it being only our second loss of the season as we approach the halfway stage, it was a good contest that put our strength and depth of squad to the test. Playing against a decent side in Almondsbury who have only lost one game themselves, we certainly have plenty of positives to take from this game. It's a good time to take stock of the strides the squad has already taken this year as we look to continue to move forward with a fantastic group of players