COLWALL Seconds made a long trip to Wiltshire to take on Trowbridge in a West of England Premier league division two match.

TROWBRIDGE II v COLWALL II

Travelling past Swindon the heavens opened and the team pressed on expecting the worst.

Trowbridge proved surprisingly dry and as the team assembled, new skipper Geoff Carpenter won the toss and put the home side in to bat. After three balls Colwall were in high hopes, the first wicket fell as Eddie Hill induced a fine edge from opener Webb which was comfortably taken by Tim Riley behind the stumps.

Trowbridge batted well and it was with the score past the 100 mark when Colwall next struck. Having missed a couple of difficult chances, Eddie Hill pouched an easy catch on the mid wicket boundary from the bowling of Brian Goode.

This brought South African Johannes Foure to the wicket, clearly a classy player he was to have a huge impact on the game, enabling Trowbridge to accelerate the scoring as the bowlers tired.

A final total of of 267 would have been higher if it had not been for the outstanding fielding of Will Coomer.

Foure's bowling was of a standard not usually seen in second XI cricket. He accounted quickly for Peter Thompson, although captain Carpenter seemed untroubled.

Tim Riley dropped anchor and then Usher bowled a short ball which Carpenter was on to quickly, but instead of depositing it over the square leg boundary, a glancing blow sent the ball ricocheting into his left cheek and the captain was off to hospital for treatment.

Will Coomer briefly looked assured until Foure shattered his stumps and then Riley called Brian Goode for a quick single which was too quick.

Matt Berry was the most fluent of the Colwall batsman. He played himself in and then took the attack to Trowbridge. The drizzle dampened ground and increasingly slippery conditions underfoot slowed the scoring rate but Berry unleashed an array of classic off drives.

Riley was finally deceived by a googly from Gibson after a long defensive innings. The target was now well out of reach, and as the returning Foure dismissed Berry it was up to the lower order to squeeze past the target for some batting bonus points.