WEPL Clevedon’s hopes of landing Premier One title suffer a blow with defeat to Bath
CLEVEDON’S lead at the top of WEPL Premier One was trimmed as champions Bath completed the double over their title rivals with a 65-run success at Dial Hill.
Bath, who started the day third and 33 points in arrears, took advantage of a slip up by Downend to move up to second and now have a 25-point deficit to make up with seven rounds of games to go.
The visitors, who won the toss, were on the back foot as Gloucestershire’s Ryan Higgins accounted for both openers, while Dan Williams then bowled Tim Rouse and Paul Muchall to make the score 59-4.
Clevedon continued to remain in the driving seat at 124-6 as spinner Will Thirkell dismissed Ben Wells (39), but that was the signal for Luke Padgett (52) and Ben Ackland (42) to give the innings late momentum.
Higgins finished with 4-47 and Williams a fine 3-26 from ten overs, while Masoor Khan captured 2-32 from eight as Bath battled their way up to a total of 215.
Clevedon, whose only league reverse going into this head-tohead was at Bath back in early May, raced out of the blocks thanks to Higgins who was dismissed for 20 with the score on 35 in the sixth over.
But Bath gradually turned the screw with Tom Hankins (3-15 from eight overs) and Somerset’s Rouse (3-31 from 9.3) backing up fine work from Muchall (1-29 from eight) as Clevedon slipped from 85-3 to 150 all out. Next up for Bath is a home date against Goatacre who find themselves at the foot of the table after a 50-run home setback against Bristol.
Hero for the visitors was Gloucestershire all-rounder Kieran NoemaBarnett who made up for being dismissed without scoring by bagging 6-38 from 9.5 overs.
Bristol were earlier bowled out for 194, a total which owed plenty to skipper Will Rudge’s late 59 off only 35 balls as he helped his side rally from a distinctly unpromising 107-7.
Downend dropped two places to fourth following a seven-wicket loss away to Potterne.
Brandon Gilmour (59) and Joe Dryell (48) both perished to Sahan Wijerathne, before visiting skipper Matt Jackson lifted his side to 299 all out with a brutal 54 off only 23 deliveries (four fours, five sixes), denting the figures of Wijerathne, who finished with 5-77. The total, though, proved to be well within range for Potterne as skipper Ashur Morrison (88 not), opener Tom Alsop (78) and Basil Akram (67 not out) brought up victory in the 46th over.
Scotland A paceman Adrian Neill returned season-best figures of 5-31 for Bedminster to help pave the way for a six-wicket home success over Bridgwater.
The visitors were rumbled for 183 before skipper Rob Cunliffe (49) and Sai Kamuni (45) completed a crucial win for the Bristol side as the battle to avoid relegation tightened, particularly with Froces- ter moving off the bottom of the table with an eight-wicket triumph away to Taunton St Andrews.
» Australian Dayne Siede compiled an unbeaten 157 from 146 balls (21 fours, three sixes) to guide newcomers Uphill Castle to a fourwicket triumph away to Bridgwater 2nds in the Somerset division.
Uphill remain second bottom after chasing down a target of 233 but have significantly closed the gap on their rivals thanks to the efforts of the Queenslander, who also bagged 2-17.