Ledbury Cricket Club enjoyed a very successful weekend with home victories in Marches league and the Marches Cup against Moccas and Prestigne respectively.
On Saturday, they defeated Moccas by 90 runs. Batting first, Ledbury amassed 177-8, thanks mainly to a typically gutsy 72 from opener Rob Yeoman.
On a pacy wicket, Yeoman battled away in the face of an aggressive opening spell from Tooley and then accelerated his innings in the later overs. He was well supported by Pritchard (20) before he was run out. Some late hitting by Mark Herbert (17no) saw Ledbury up to a challenging total.
In reply, Moccas began at a canter, and despite losing two early wickets they were well placed at 62-2 from ten overs. Inevitably though, Clive Jones made the vital breakthrough having Collins snapped up at slip by the diving Embrey and with this Ledbury dominated the rest of proceedings as the remaining seven wickets fell for 25 runs.
Five of these wickets fell to Pete Pritchard who claimed 5-15 and was well rewarded for a spell of aggressive pace bowling, his first five-wicket haul for Ledbury. He was backed up by some excellent catches by slips Embrey and Evans and wicketkeeper Locke.
On Sunday, Ledbury again batted first and despite the early loss of Burgess they made a good start as Yeoman (31) and Pat Locke (52) added 88 for the second wicket.
Locke, especially, was in fine form hitting a number of dazzling cover drives in a return to form until he holed out at long-on going for another boundary.
After this Ledbury lost their way as 97-1 became 113-5 with eight overs remaining. This brought captain Ehrlich to the wicket and with a combination of good running and excellent hitting, he made a quick- fire 33 to get Ledbury up to 181-8 off their 40 overs, ably supported by Clueit (14no).
Prestigne began their reply well, and despite some excellent fast bowling by Dan Herbert, Davidson (36) and Bartholomew (28) got them off to an excellent start, adding 67 for the first wicket, Davidson hitting two huge 6s.
However the introduction of Evans (0-15 off 8) and Mark Herbert (1-32) enabled Ledbury to exert some pressure on their visitors and although they weren't taking wickets, they enabled the run rate to continually creep up beyond a run a ball.
With Prestigne going onto the offensive, Embrey and Clueit were brought into the attack and they took vital wickets in three successive overs, with Embrey removing the dangerman Davidson and Clueit bowling Ammons for 21. After this Prestigne never looked like keeping up with the scoring rate, despite some brave hitting by Jones (22).
For Ledbury, Embrey (3-37) and Clueit (3-34) both bowled superbly at the death in tense conditions.
Ledbury ultimately ran out victors by 23 runs in what was a keenly contested game played in an excellent spirit.
The club start tonight (Friday), and every Friday, running coaching sessions for children under the age of 12.
The sessions are 6.30-8pm and any children wanting to play cricket on their doorstep should go to the ground situated behind the Full Pitcher.
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