A 5-wicket haul from in-form James Hands, helped Broadway 2nd XI continued their late season charge with a victory against fellow promotion hopefuls Elmley Castle 2nd XI, in a rain affected contest.

With weather likely to cause problems later in the afternoon, the toss was always going to be crucial & Broadway won the toss and had no hesitation in fielding first. The Elmley opening pair began in watchful fashion before Rich Pedley induced an edge from Eaton & Luke McDonagh took a sharp low catch at first slip. Left-Hander Corfield and opener Sheppy look in good touch, but some tight bowling and a slightly damp outfield meant that the scoring rate stayed in check. Corfield was 2nd to go, caught behind by Will Jelfs off the bowling off Pedley. Charlton followed shortly after to hand Pedley his 3rd wicket when he was caught at short 3rd man by Steve Wheeler.

A huge deluge then followed after 20 overs, which forced the players to scamper to the pavillion. With surely one of the fastest drying grounds in the Cotswold Leagues, the delay was little over half an hour and only 10 overs had been lost.

Upon resumption James Hands replaced Pedley from the coppice end and immediately got Sheppy out caught and bowled. Hands will admit it wasn't the best ball he's over bowled, as Sheppy's attempted pull looped straight up in the air. Toby Smith was keeping things tight at the other end, and got a deserved wicket when he trapped Woodford in front of his stumps.

Hands then began to tear through the lower order, by bowling full and straight. Having Charlton LBW and clean bowling Ballard and Collicut. McDonagh replaced Smith from the Snowshill end, and got his deserved wicket by bowling the Elmley Castle captain Webb, with a ball that jagged back and hit middle stump. The innings was completed in the 40th over, when Hands got his 5th wicket, having Roberts caught at slip by McDonagh at the 2nd attempt.

Broadway's revised target was 92 off 35 overs. After his impressive innings last week, Frank Carenza was promoted to open the batting alongside Wheeler. The pair began in watchful fashion, seeing off a testing opening spell from Webb, who got some movement and bounce from the Snowshill End.

Runs did begin to flow from the other end, but batting was never particularly easy to begin with, and a look at the wagon wheel would show that both players mainly scored behind square either side of the wicket.

Once the pair had raised the 50 partnership, they began to accelarate. Carenza hitting a flowing on-drive and Wheeler hitting A.Charlton for 6 over cover point. The 1st wicket finally fell with the score on 76 when Carenza was caught and bowled by left arm spinner L.Charlton. McDonagh followed shortly after, run out, when a combination of a poor call from Wheeler and good fielding left him well short of his ground. Wheeler also followed with just 8 needed to win, when he was caught by a magnificent diving catch at slip from Barber, off the bowling of the impressive youngster Roberts.

Warren Marston joined Hands in the middle to see off the remaining runs. It was fitting that Hands hit the winning boundary with more than 11 overs to spare.

http://broadway.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11371411

Steve Wheeler