BOSBURY travelled to Canon Frome in the Flint and Cook Marches League division four on Saturday and came away with a victory by 176 runs.

CANON FROME v BOSBURY

Batting first, the Bosbury openers Gary Fletcher and Merv Carless made a careful start as Frome's opening bowlers, Cottrell and Watkins, found some early swing in the cloudy conditions. Bosbury lost their first wicket in the 19th over, as Carless was bowled by Cottrell for 14 with 44 runs on the board.

After Dave Taylor had hit boundaries off his first two balls, he fell next ball, caught and bowled to Barnett, then Fletcher fell one run later, bowled by Barnett for 41. The score approaching the half-way stage of the innings was 68-3.

Darren Cooke and Luke Ledbury then began to accelerate the scoring, moving to 118 before Ledbury was out, caught for 20 off Watkins.

Dave Daffin hit two boundaries in a brief innings before he was bowled by Johnson with an in-swinging yorker, bringing Steve Davies to the crease. The scoring rate now began to increase rapidly as Cooke and Davies began to attack the bowling with vigour. In a swash-buckling last 12 overs, the pair added 175 runs, with Davies hitting seven fours and four sixes in his 69. But it was Cooke who stole the show with an exciting innings of 131, which included 13 fours and eight sixes. Davies was run out in the last over but not until Bosbury had taken the score to 306-6.

Chasing such a large total was never going to be easy, and Canon Frome soon found themselves pegged back by some accurate bowling from Mark Wadley and Jon Owen. It was Steve Davies who made the breakthrough, bowling Frome opener M Richards for 13, and then Jon Owen had G Whittaker caught for 13. After Owen picked up Johnson for 0, the game was drifting away from Canon Frome.

With little chance of reaching the Bosbury score, they set out to try and survive to the end of the innings. Peter Blake was brought into the attack and with some steady, accurate bowling he picked up four wickets cheaply to give Bosbury hope of gaining full points. However, Barnett and Mawby saw out the remaining overs in fading light, as Canon Frome ended on 130-8.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Bosbury are at home against Llandrindod.