SWAN, Alfrick won this 35-over friendly fixture against a Bosbury on Sunday by 20 runs.

SWAN, ALFRICK v BOSBURY

Winning the toss, Alfrick batted on a lovely sunny afternoon, on a good batting wicket. They raced along at over six an over in the first ten overs, losing only the wicket of A Croad, bowled by Luke Ledbury for 14.

B Ratcliff, in at number three, was in fine form, hitting the ball to all corners of the field and soon brought up his 50. With the score on 96, Alfrick lost both T Squire, superbly caught and bowled by Gary Price for 23, and then P Whittenbury, caught by Bill Rees behind the stumps off Price again for 0.

S Jay stayed with Ratcliff, scoring 21 in a partnership worth 72, before he was lbw to Ledbury in the 26th over. R Collins came in to bat, but it was Ratcliff who was next out, bowled by Mark Wadley for 96, falling just short of what would have been a well deserved century.

Collins struck some boundaries in a productive innings of 32 in the final overs, as Alfrick posted a daunting 220 runs off their 35 overs.

Norman Brown and Dave Daffin opened for Bosbury, getting the innings off to a good start. They had reached 40 when Daffin was first out, lbw to D Stewart for 23.

Mark Wadley joined Brown, and they progressed the score to 73 before Brown was out caught by R Collins off A Sanders for 26. Gary Price was out second ball, caught behind the stumps for a duck.

Next in was Luke Ledbury, and together with Wadley, they started to take the game away from Alfrick, taking the score up to 161 before Ledbury was caught by Collins off D Stewart for 38.

Bosbury's young batsmen Layton and Auderry were both bowled out in the next over by R Collins for 0, and Bosbury now found themselves in a spot of bother. Karl Warrener joined Wadley out in the middle, but Wadley was caught and bowled by R Collins.

Warrener managed to bring the Bosbury score up to 200, with a defiant 21no, but Bill Rees (4) and skipper Peter Blake (0) could not stay with him, and Swan, won this good-spirited game by 20 runs.