Brothers team up to punish sorry Bards (From Cotswold Journal)

Brothers team up to punish sorry Bards

8:00am Friday 17th August 2012 in Sport

ELMLEY Castle grabbed a crucial 39-run win over fellow strugglers Stratford Bards to move 14 points clear of the Cotswold Hills League Premier Division relegation zone.

Fielding a mix of experience and youth, Castle’s 20- point haul was thanks to a brilliant 204-run partnership between brothers Neil and Simon Cooper.

Mike Brown earlier added 20 on a good batting track with short boundaries before Neil Cooper (117 not out) crafted 18 boundaries, including five sixes.

Simon Cooper (89) blasted 12 boundaries with four sixes as the visitors posted an impressive 270-5.

Sam Hopkins (1-40) started the bowling mission with Brown (3-58) bagging the vital wicket of Justin De Jagger (54).

Ashley Hemming (2-26) and Ashley Charlton (1-15) impressed before Liam Charlton (1-13) claimed the last wicket with the penultimate ball. The hosts were dismissed for 231.

• The Lenches continue to impress with a 112-run victory over FISSC maintaining their push for a third straight promotion.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, The Lenches, third in Division Two, were on 38-1 after 10 overs before picking up the run-rate.

Pete Williams and Charlie Stokes took them to 68-2 after 13 overs and Alan White continued his fine form with 32.

Brian Williams also shone, hitting a huge six off his third ball. Despite a good run-rate, The Lenches lost regular wickets with Stokes going for 42 and Brian Williams 43.

They were all out for 227 after 38.3 overs with L Nardone taking 5-62.

The opening bowlers got straight into the FISSC batting with the visitors reduced to 7-2 after two overs. Some big hitting gave FISSC a chance but it all went downhill with Tom Paul (3-12) taking three wickets in one over to leave FISSC all out for 115.

• Leaders Badsey are close to securing promotion from Division Four after beating third-placed Cookhill by seven wickets.

Elliott Thompson took 5-32 as the visitors were dismissed for 130.

Stuart Berry scored 53 in their reply of 134-3 to win in the 34th over with Sam Thomson adding 25, Thompson 22 not out and Rob Andrew 24no.