Wiltshire County League Cricket: Collingbourne v Devizes 2nd

On Saturday Collingbourne CC played hosts to Devizes 2nds on a good wicket under a threat of rain.

Collingbourne won the toss and elected to bat first expecting the early conditions to be the best.

Collingbourne's opening pair made light work of the bowling as Graham Chandler and Tom Grant shared a 182 opening partnership.

The Devizes bowlers had no answer to this pair who were matching each other run for run until the 29th over when Chandler was caught on 94.

Collingbourne lost there 2nd and 3rd wickets in quick succession whilst Tom Grant at the other end managed to steer himself to his 3rd hundred of the season.

Grant finally fell on 101 in the 39th over leaving the stage set for some big hitting from Captain Owen Sheppard and number 6 bat James Grant, and they didn’t disappoint.

The pair shared an 81 run partnership in the remaining 5.4 overs of Collingbournes innings. James Grant finished on 32 not out from 18 balls and Sheppard on 66 not out from 35 balls.

Collingbourne ended the innings on 311 for 4 wickets with Devizes captain Paul Kimber the pick of the bowlers taking 2 wickets for 43 runs from 9 overs.

In response Devizes always knew the task was beyond them and they set about getting as many points out of the game as they could.

They were belligerent in their batting and refused to give any wickets away.

Openers Kimber and Underwood saw off the aggressive Collingbourne bowling of Darren Pritchard (0 for 18 from 12) and Ollie Scott (0 for 36 from 12) who bowled excellent spells with no success.

It wasn’t until the introduction of veteran seamer John Aitken that the opening pair were finally split up as he had captain Paul Kimber caught superbly by Micheal Hulme at gully for 32.

Aitken then picked up a second wicket pinning the Devizes number 3 LBW for 15.

Collingbourne threw everything they could at Devizes with constant changes in bowling and the use of 8 bowlers to try and dislodge some wickets.

In the end it worked as the game wound down part time spinner Geoff Rogers and Captain Owen Sheppard managed to grab a wicket each.

But it was opener Underwood who evaded capture and carried his bat for a dogged 67 not out from 127 balls.

Devizes finished their innings on 169 for 4. Thankfully the rain stayed away.