Marlborough v Swindon (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Marlborough v Swindon

SWINDON were asked to bat first and Australian opener Rourke was quickly into his stride, making a useful 44 before being caught by home skipper Navid Ahmad off the bowling of Vinay Sharma. Earlier, George Fox had trapped Will Nichols for 8.

That brought skipper John Baden to the wicket and he played a patient innings which saw him cruise past 50 with one of many boundaries. He was eventually out for 68, caught by wicketkeeper Andy Halliday off the bowling of Sharma. Peter Mathias bowled a good opening spell finishing with 1-37 from 13 overs.

The tail was quickly finished off with a third wicket for Sharma and another couple for Fox. Hendy Alleyne took the final wicket to wrap the innings for 177. Fox finished with 3-70 and Sharma 3-34.

The Marlborough innings got off to the worst possible start with Ahmad out for 0, followed by Alleyne for 5, Sharma for 0 and Whiting for 2. The total was now 25-4 and only the patience of Tom Norris was showing how the innings should have been built. With Andy Halliday out for 5 the score was only 37 and half the team were out.

But Norris was picking up some good runs and once he was joined by Peter Day they moved the score on to 81 where Norris was out for a fighting 33.

Day continued to score freely but was disappointed to be caught out for 33. Unfortunately the tail added very little after that and the final score was a very disappointing 101 all out.

Best of the bowlers for Swindon were Willoughby with 3 for 15, Rourke with 3 for 25, Nichols with 2 for 21 and Zohaib with 2 for 2.

Swindon gained 20 points while Marlborough collected just 5. This week the team travel to play Hatherley and Redding.

Bredon 2nds v Marlborough 2nds.

MARLBOROUGH batted first and the innings was given a good start by Andy Hay with 11 and Mark Cooper with 32. Steve Jones contributed 12 and at the other end, Ajay Kumar was starting to build a splendid innings.

He hit the ball to all corners of the ground in a very fine 91 not out and dominated the remainder of the innings. The final score 197-6.

Bredon were given a very good start with 51 from Carter and 49 from Booth. However, once these batsmen were out the Marlborough bowlers were able to get on top and restricted the home team to 179 for 9. For Marlborough Tom Wallbridge finished off a good first game for him with 4 for 34, Joey Skeaping had 1 for 24, Ajay Kumar added to his runs with 3 for 37 and skipper Vik Patel took 1 for 48. Vanny Williams had no luck finishing with 0 for 28.

Marlborough scored 18 points whilst Bredon scored 7. This week Marlborough 2nds are home to Winget 2nds.

Marlborough v Wiltshire Queries.

MARLBOROUGH were restricted to 123 for 6, top scorer was Andy Halliday with 66 not out. Wiltshire Queries made the required score for the loss of four wickets. Next Sunday Marlborough play their first Border League game away at Thatcham.