After a season plagued by wet weather, the sun shone for the final game of the season but there were no celebrations for Timsbury who lost by two wickets away to Old Bristolians Westbury.
Timsbury finished in the bottom two of the Bristol and District League Senior Division. It was a tantalisingly tight finish to the campaign, with their close rivals Hanham winning their match by just one wicket with one ball to spare.
Not for the first time Timsbury owed a huge debt to Mark Sage who batted throughout the visitors’ innings to finish unbeaten on 96. On a wet pitch he paced his innings perfectly and a total of 188-8 from the 45 overs looked more than competitive. One of Sage’s colleagues from his Somerset youth days, Rupert Swetman was the most successful of the home bowlers with 3-28.
With the pitch drying out, Old Bristolians Westbury looked well on the way to a comfortable victory with knocks of 68 from Charlie Hiram and 33 from Ben Harris seeing them to 142-2. However, Timsbury stuck to their task and as wickets started to fall gave themselves a chance of an unlikely win before the home side eventually got over the line with two wickets and seven balls to spare. There were two wickets each for Jon Strand and Greg Passingham.
There was much better news for Timsbury’s other two sides. Timsbury’s second eleven ended the season with a 53 run win at home against Brislington’s third eleven in the Bristol and District League Division 5.
Freddie Hosford celebrated his eighteenth birthday with a fine undefeated knock of 74 and with Sol Thompson contributing 33 Timsbury ended their 40 overs on 190-7. Matt Hanley took 3-50 for the visitors.
A fine spell of 2-9 from his eight overs from Tom Parfitt saw Timsbury put early pressure on Brislington and despite 52 from David Blake the home side ran out comfortable winners. Martin Richards took 2-12 and Freddie Hosford capped a memorable day with 3-29.
Timsbury third eleven ended their campaign with an impressive seven wicket win away to near neighbours Midsomer Norton third eleven in the Bristol and District League Division 13. After being asked to bat first Mark Batchelar (49) and Darren Gould (33) got Midsomer Norton off to a good start and despite a tidy spell of bowling from Ben Smith who took 3-29 the home side reached 178-6.
Captain Laurie Jones (52) and Will Rawlings (36) then gave Timsbury an excellent platform with an opening stand of 83 and with Smith backing up his bowling exploits with a typically aggressive 52 not out Timsbuty won with more ten overs to spare.
M Tucker