North Petherton skipper happy with second place after four-wicket win (From This is The West Country)

North Petherton skipper happy with second place after four-wicket win

8:20am Thursday 12th July 2012 in Sport By Daniel Milligan

North Petherton took advantage of a dry Sunday to beat Cheddar and move up to second spot in the table.

Winning the toss, skipper Gibbs elected to bowl on what could only be described as a pudding of a wicket which produced an inconsistent bounce and made life hard for the home batsmen; only M. Sims truly adjusted, amassing 66 of his team’s 116-run total.

Tim Gibbs (2-17) A. Bunce (1-25) Lewis Irish (3-38) and J. Wyatt (2-16) did the damage with the ball.

Despite the loss of late wickets, this was a relatively straight-forward chase for North Petherton, Tom Williams creating the platform for others to bat around him with a well- crafted 24, while Owen Irish continued his fine season with the bat, tucking into the home bowlers with a quick-fire 48.

Pethy were sitting comfortably on 102-3 but the loss of three quick wickets, produced a few nerves before Harry Bowditch (5no) hit the winning runs with a well-timed cover drive.

l Skipper Lewis Irish told the Mercury’s Daniel Milligan his team are still fighting for the Division 1 title this season.

He said: “We have managed to hang in there and produce some promising results.

“We are into the semi-finals of both the Baker Cup and Somerset Minor Cup and sit second in the league with plenty to play for.

“Tom Williams is playing with a hip injury but remains key to our chances. We have been here before and we have learnt from our mistakes and are more than ready for the business end of this season.”