Sadly, Chris Donavan’s Third team saw their first outing of the summer thwarted by the weather and pitch conditions at Backwell but they’ll be in action this weekend for sure. The same fate befell our Sunday 2nds at Hinton Charterhouse. Fingers crosses the weather has changed and we can all say goodbye to some grotty May conditions and hello to sunnier cricket-rich days in June!

For the First and Second XIs on Saturday it was a brilliant day. Despite Friday’s monsoon, both games were played – albeit under testing conditions. I’ll let the captains report on their days below …

Lansdown First XI vs Bedminster (Away)

Bedminster won the toss and elected to field.
LCC 140/7 (30 overs)
Bed 103 All Out (25.5 overs)
Lansdown won by 37 Runs

Report from Oskar Kolk:

Thanks to the English Summer, this week’s game was reduced to 30 overs per side.

Having lost the toss on an extremely wet pitch, our openers Jordan Smith and Connor Brown batted with maturity and class on a very tough wicket. Connor showed why he is the leading batsman in the league at the moment with what turned out to be a match winning 47.

The introduction of spin from Bedminster brought a change in the game, with the pitch becoming almost unplayable at times. Our county professional George Scott stepped up the scoring alongside Ash Allen with a flurry of boundaries at the back end of the innings to give us a very competitive score of 140.

This was to prove to be plenty as a constant fall of wickets slowly suffocated the Bedminster batting innings. Sam Wheller took 4 key wickets and was ably assisted again by George Scott who took 2 wickets for 2 runs in 4 overs, and Ash Allen who bowled a beautiful spell at the start of the innings.

It was a game in which we did not showcase our fluent best, however the grit and fight showed by the boys to get a win in tough conditions was really pleasing. It’s a result that keeps us within touching distance of top spot. We’re looking forward to being back at Combe Park next weekend for another huge game against Clevedon - we hope to see as many of you there as possible.

You can view all of the statistics from the game here:

https://lansdown.play-cricket.com/website/results/4129589

With the league table here:

https://lansdown.play-cricket.com/website/division/87894

Lansdown Second XI vs Cleeve CC (Combe Park)

Lansdown won the toss and elected to field.
Cleeve 103 All Out (25 overs)
Lansdown 104/8 (29.4 overs)
Lansdown won by 2 wickets

Match report from captain Nathan Price:

Our second home game of the season saw us play hosts to Cleeve Cricket Club. Looking to build upon the winning platform of the previous weekend we were aiming to put together our first back-to-back wins of the season.

With our luck continuing at the toss we put the visitors into bat and the combination of openers Ollie Gooding and Joel Parry proved to be very fruitful yet again. Taking full advantage of the pitch and overhead conditions, we reduced Cleeve to 23-4 early on. Joel unlucky in just picking up the 1 wicket, however he bowled some unplayable deliveries that the batsman would have been happy just to get their bats close to.

A man of the match performance followed from Sam Athay taking the team's first 5 wicket haul of the season. Ending on figures of 5-15 he tore through the middle and lower order in a fantastic display of left arm bowling. Ollie returned to wrap up the innings and finishing up with superb figures of his own of 4-30. Backed by the players in the field, it was great to see another very accomplished display from bowling attack.

After reduced Cleeve to 103 all out, we were confident that the hard work had been done. After a slight change to the batting line due to an injury sustained by opening bat Danny Poole in the field, we set about the run chase. Unfortunately, as the game went on our batting troubles began to surface yet again. With some tight bowling and fielding from the visitor's, we continuously lost wickets at regular intervals to ensure a very nervous ending to the game.

However, the determination to get over the finishing line can be summed by the actions of Danny Poole who came running back from A&E to help the team to victory. This desire along with runs from Simon Cole and a patient batting display from Louis Mancini ensured it was the back-to-back victories we were after.

Although our difficulties with the bat continue, the tenacity shown by the players was very pleasing to see with our bowling attack getting ever stronger week on week. This was perhaps a game we might have lost in previous years – however, this season we ensured we got the job done and we're looking forward to our next game.

You can view all of the statistics from the game here:
https://lansdown.play-cricket.com/website/results/4759472

With the league table here:

https://lansdown.play-cricket.com/website/division/87621

See you all next weekend!

Scott