Double delight as Goodrich top GB Liners Marches League (From Hereford Times)

Double delight as Goodrich top GB Liners Marches League

8:30am Thursday 26th July 2012 in Sport By Richard Prime

THE battle for supremacy in the GB Liners Marches League Division One took a fresh twist when victory for Goodrich over leaders Garnons lifted the south Herefordhire club to the top of the table.

And with the game also counting as a Marches Cup quarter-final, it was double delight for the home club.

After the deluge of recent weeks, it was something of a relief for the teams to get on to the field.

But conditions were still far from perfect.

“On Friday evening, parts of the outfield still squelched under foot as we walked on them,” said Goodrich skipper Andy Brown.

“And you could still push your finger into the pitch.

“But after rolling, it was fine but it’s still more like the ground would be in April or May.

“Two weeks ago, though, 80 per cent of the ground was under water as were eight out of the 10 pitches on the square.”

The prolific Brown was a major contributor to the Goodrich score after the visitors won the toss and elected to field, battering 75 as he dominated a stand of 98 with opener Roger Lord.

Andy Evans then added a quickfire 33 as Goodrich reached 166-8 from their 45 overs.

But Garnons were rarely in the hunt as only three of their players reached double-figures with the visitors dismissed for just 94.

With Garnons collecting just four points, they have slipped to second place in the table.

“I thought it was going to be one of those ‘lose the toss, lose the game’ days,” said Brown.

“But we bowled better than they did on the day. Richard Bastable, who topped the bowling averages in Division One last year, was playing his first game of the season because of injury and he took 4-32.

“Mark Bradford did not concede a run until the fifth ball of his fourth over and he finished with 2-15 from 12 overs.

“Chris Tookey took 3-19 to mop up the tail and Rufus Davies got the other wicket.

“We have still got a couple of tricky games to play — Crickhowell are coming here and we play Luctonians on Saturday — but we have given ourselves a platform to go on and win the league.

“It’s ours to lose now.”