MIDSOMER NORTON 186-3 SHAPWICK & POLDEN 185

At a sunny-but-breezy Withies Lane last Saturday, Midsomer Norton got back to winning ways following the previous week’s defeat, and moved back into the top half of the WEPL Prem Two table.

A confident and competent performance was the ideal preparation for a side with fixtures against three of the teams above them in the next three games.

Visitors, Shapwick & Polden, won the toss and chose to bat against a Norton side with Andy Cox back to lead the attack following injury. It was Cox’s opening partner, Gary Filer, though, that struck early for

Midsomer Norton. Filer, finishing with 3-33, dismissed the first three Shapwick batsmen which saw the visitors reduced to 46-3.

The visitors then rallied with a 50-run partnership for the fourth wicket when Chris Hampshire (3-33) struck to dismiss Spencer for 28. The most threatening of the

visitors’ batsmen was Oskar White, but he was run out for 49 and Shapwick were all-out for 185, their efforts aided by the 25 extras conceded by the home side. Nick Pang and Dan Chard picked up one wicket each.

Norton’s reply didn’t start well, losing a wicket in the first over. Norton found themselves 51-3 in the eighteenth over when player/coach, Jake Rowe, joined brother Caleb at the wicket. The brothers dug in and steadied the Norton ship. Progress wasn’t rapid but the 50 partnership was chalked up in the 33rd over.

With more than 80 runs needed for victory, though, Shapwick were still in the game. The Rowe brothers started to accelerate as more boundaries were struck to take Norton closer to victory. Caleb finished on 86 not-out and Jake reached 41 not-out when the winning runs came in the 47th over to secure

victory by seven wickets.

Norton visit second-placed Winterbourne this Saturday, 15th June; the game starts at 12.30 p.m. Norton’s Second XI play Old Down at Withies Lane on Saturday, while the Third XI visit Chipping

Sodbury. Both games start at 1.30 p.m.

In lovely evening sunshine and in front of a large crowd, Midsomer Norton Cricket Club officially opened their new changing rooms on the last Friday in May. The countdown to the ribbon cutting ceremony was led by the club’s Junior All Stars, who will be able to make great use of the new facilities in the years to come.

More than eighty youngsters are currently enjoying their first taste of cricket as part of the All Stars programme at Midsomer Norton. The ribbon-cutting duties were performed by Techniglaze Managing Director, Nick Candy, and Midsomer Norton Town Council’s Deputy Mayor, Steve Plumley.

Club Chairman, Graeme King, thanked Techniglaze, the Sperring Trust, Somer Valley Rotary Club, the

Medlock Trust and Midsomer Norton Town Council for the financial support which has helped the project progress and he thanked club members, including Secretary Alan Elkington, Project Chairman Graham Poulton and Cricket Manager/ Groundsman Phil Mortimer, for all their work. Graeme also thanked Ken Bowen Jones for his work in the early stages.

The new changing rooms replace facilities built more than 100 years ago. The new building features four

separate changing rooms with their own showers and toilets and provides separate changing facilities for both male and female players and match officials. The club’s Men’s and Women’s Senior sides and the Junior teams will all benefit from the new facilities.

Charlie Matthews