Bess bros inspiring revival at Sidmouth
BATTING with your brother can give you a crucial advantage over the opposition – luckily for Josh Bess he has two of those in the Sidmouth team.
Last season’s Devon Premier Division champions are relying upon the three Bess brothers – Josh, Zachary and Luke – in their attempts to retain their title.
And knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses has come in handy in recent weeks, as Sidmouth thrusted themselves back into title contention after an indifferent start to the season.
Despite going down to leaders Bovey Tracey last time out, a six-wicket victory over Bradninch the week beforehand keeps Sidmouth in the running approaching the business end of the season.
Zachary and Josh put on a 215-run partnership that day as they chased down an imposing total of 329 at Fortfield.
And Josh admits his score of 120 was made even more special by seeing his brother Zachary smash 137 and the winning runs.
He said: “It was a great chase in the end and one we thoroughly enjoyed. It was nice to get a good score and amongst the runs.
“329 was a big total, but it’s always a good track at our place, if you can get in it’s pretty hard to get guys out sometimes.
“It was really nice to get runs with Zachary, we’ve managed to bat quite a lot this year and nice to finally see it all click together and get a match-winning display.
“It was really special, we have batted a lot together and we know where our strengths and weaknesses lie which can be crucial in a run chase.”
The duo – whose cousin Dom plays for Somerset – have linked up to devastating effect so far this season, producing a 170run partnership for Devon to chase down 283 against Wiltshire in the Unicorns league.
But Josh admits he only cares about winning games for Sidmouth as they try and overhaul Bovey Tracey at the top of the table.
He said: “It has all just clicked into place this season and it has been enjoyable.There have been plenty of bad days in the Bess household but recently it has been great.
“The most important thing is the team – as long as our innings contribute to a victory we are happy.
“We didn’t have the best start to the league this year, we won it last season but we’ve been on the back foot a little bit this campaign and we are chasing the league a little bit now.
“Hopefully if we play well we can put some pressure on, we have a bit of work to do but in a positive manner.
“Your batters need to get runs, both myself and Zach have been hitting them well recently which obviously helps.
“But instead of just hitting a 50 or a 60 we want to keep pushing and hit those match-winning innings and I think that’s the message in the team.”