Berkshire have progressed out of the very strong South East group to qualify for the knock out stages, for the third time in the last four years, since the Covid season of 2020.
They have been drawn to play Wales away at Pontarddulais CC this coming Sunday 28th July, with a 1pm start. https://over50cc.play-cricket.com/cup_draw?id=65132
The team won five of their seven fixtures in the group this season, beating the likes of Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Herts and Bucks along the way. https://over50cc.play-cricket.com/website/division/118325
The bedrock of the team’s success has been teamwork and strong availability. Eight of the side who will travel to Wales on Sunday have played in 6 or more of the midweek league fixtures. The batting was very consistent, with four successful chases, anchored by solid middle order performances. The addition of Simon Foster’s genuine pace at this level, added another dimension to the usual experienced four pronged spin attack.
Jim Ettridge tops the batting aggregate to date with 4 fifties in 7 innings. Having 6 regular reliable bowlers to call upon in each match allowed the bowling to be rotated when fielding first to restrict opponents to chaseable scores. Daminda Kolugala topped the divisional bowling charts with 13 wickets at 14.69. Duncan Johnson provided all round strength with 9 wickets at 31 and 241 runs at 48.2, including the only century of the year so far.
Fielding first seemed to revitalise the form of veteran wicket keeper Andrew Davis, who currently sits top of the fielding dismissals across the country by a clear distance, with most catches and most stumpings. https://over50cc.play-cricket.com/Statistics?season=257&sub_tab=Standard&tab=Fielding
Davis has now moved to the top of the all-time list for English qualified wicketkeepers at this level, and in an interesting twist of fate, will go head to head for the first time in a domestic fixture against his respected and much admired Welsh counterpart Stephen Powell. Powell currently sits 3 ahead of Davis in the overall all-time list and their friendly rivalry will be an interesting sub plot to Sunday’s contest. Both will be looking for their team to prevail, with no quarter given or expected, but you can guarantee whatever the result they will share a post-match pint, such is the convivial nature of Over 50’s cricket.