West of England Premier League Prem 2 Glos/Wilts division

Lechlade 155 ao lost to Biddestone 157-4 by six wickets

IT WAS not a good week for struggling Lechlade in the lead up to the home fixture against Biddestone as they learned that their County U-17 slow left-armer, Harvey Jupp, will be out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture.

Fellow county U-17, Keiron Chakraborty, who has bowled well in the last two weeks, was also ruled out with illness but it did at least provide the opportunity for Lechlade to promote the County U-15 captain, Freddie Merrett, who has been prolific in the second team recently.

The other big news coming out of the Manor Ground this week was the decision to reinstate Freddie Martin as captain and leave all-rounder Benny Ellis to concentrate on his bowling and batting.

Martin duly won the toss and elected to bat and he took responsibility at the top of the order. However it wasn't long before the swinging ball was his undoing as he was bowled by Tyrone Isitt.

James Palmer and Brad Dial battled away on a pitch which was rather uneven and an attack which was exploiting the conditions effectively.

Having done the hard work Palmer (31) played a rash shot and skied a ball to mid-wicket. Jefferson and Mortimer soon followed but Ellis and Dial (24) looked to have steadied the innings when on the last ball before drinks Dial played an untypically loose shot and was well caught at deep mod-wicket.

Benny Ellis batted well with the lower order but the damage had been done.

Just as Ellis (42) looked to be giving Lechlade a chance of posting a defendable score he was brilliantly caught at extra cover by Biddestone captain Luke Panes. Lechlade quickly subsided to 155 all out, a score which looked at least 50 runs short.

In his second over, Ellis trapped Biddestone opener, Andy Flynn, LBW but Chris Baker joined Dwaine Perry and they pushed the score to 48 before Simon Taylor had Baker (11) caught at short mid-on by Ellis.

Ellis himself then bowled Akito Jacques for one and when Tom Barnes induced Isitt to play on in his first over, Lechlade were back in the game at 64-4.

However skipper Panes (33no) joined the impressive Perry (77no) and from that point there was only one winner. Biddestone duly completed a six wicket win in the 43rd over.

Lechlade need a little bit of luck to get out of their current losing streak but they will find that if the bowlers found a little more discipline and the batsmen showed a little more responsibility, then they would be surprised how lucky they may get.