Oxfordshire Under 14 Boys v Gloucestershire Under 14 Boys (at Faringdon & District CC)
ECB U14 Cup Group 3
Oxfordshire 222-8 (50 overs)
Gloucestershire 226-6 (50 overs)
Gloucestershire won by 4 wickets

Gloucestershire Under 14s kicked off their ECB Cup campaign with a four wicket victory over Oxfordshire.

Charlie Brennan (60 not out) (Stoke Bishop) sealed the win with a towering six as the visitors chased down their target of 222 in the 43rd over.

Earlier Oxfordshire won the toss and chose to bat on an excellent pitch. The opening pair of Brennan and Will Gilderson (Dumbleton) bowled with pace and were unlucky not to make a breakthrough during their opening spells.

Openers Turner and Laird rode their luck but remained unruffled, capitalising on anything over pitched or offline. Together they added 91 for the first wicket before legspinner Alex Oliver (Tewkesbury) struck in his second over – the 26th of the innings – to remove Turner for 38. He followed it up by removing the other opener – Laird – for the same score in his next over to slow Oxfordshire’s momentum.

The home side rebuilt with a third wicket stand of 41 before Oliver picked up two more wickets in quick succession to reduce them to 154-4. He finished his spell with 4-43 from eight overs, having removed the entire Oxfordshire top four.

Following the second drinks break at 34 overs, the home side came out firing as they looked to up the scoring rate. But despite putting Gloucestershire under pressure with some good running between the wickets they struggled to get back on top for a sustained period. Gilderson (2-44), Brennan (1-27) and Will Hope (1-8) (Dumbleton) all picked up late wickets as Oxfordshire closed on 222-8.

In reply, Gloucestershire got off to a flying start through Praneel Choughule (Thornbury) who took the attack to the Oxfordshire bowlers. Together with Hope they sped along at more than a run a ball for the first six overs. The introduction of offspinner Price (3-32) slowed the rate and he made the breakthrough, bowling Hope (13) in the eighth over with the score on 41.

At the other end Choughule showed no signs of slowing down. He reached his 50 from 42 balls with consecutive boundaries and went on to reach a scintillating 74 from 58 balls. He was finally bowled by Price with the score on 106 in the 18th over.

Stan Brown (19) (Cheltenham) followed soon after and when Oliver became Price’s third victim the Gloucestershire reply was faltering on 119-4. Debutant Joe Durie (Old Bristolians Westbury) then came in to join skipper Joe Moss (Frenchay) at the crease. Moss dug in but Durie was quickly into his stride. He took advantage of loose deliveries and a number of free hits as he struck a fearless 30 at better than a run a ball.

When Durie departed he was replaced by Brennan. He scored the majority of the runs in a partnership of 40 with Moss before the latter fell with 30 still needed. At this stage Brennan was going up through the gears and he continued to accelerate. Having scored 20 from his first 17 balls he went into overdrive, smashing 40 from his next 12 balls including four huge sixes down the ground. His powerful hitting sealed victory with 7.2 overs still remaining. The under 14s are back in action against Somerset on 17th June.

Devon Under 13 Boys v Gloucestershire Under 13 Boys (at Torquay CC)
Friendly
Gloucestershire 168-8 (40 overs)
Devon 171-4 (37.4 overs)
Devon won by 6 wickets

Gloucestershire Under-13s suffered a six wicket defeat to Devon despite Tommy Boorman (Dumbleton) making 66.

The opener top-scored as his side posted 168-8 from their 40 overs before Devon chased it down with 14 balls to spare.

The visitors chose to bat first but were put on the back foot when, after a promising start, they lost two wickets for two runs to make it 28-2. This quickly became 40-3 before Boorman and Ahmed Syed (Thornbury) dug in with a partnership of 45 for the fourth wicket.

Boorman continued to hold the innings together and eventually made a total of 66 that included seven fours. The other major contribution came from Solomon Dark (Winterbourne) who finished unbeaten on 39 as Gloucestershire closed on 168-8.

In reply, Devon put on 53 for the first wicket before Jack Whittaker was undone by the spin of Frocester’s Taylor Ireland (2-29). He struck again soon afterwards to leave the hosts on 65-2. Jake Pascoe and Cameron Ford ensured this was only a brief wobble, putting on 71 before the former fell to returning opening bowler Charlie Brook (2-29) (Cirencester) for 54. Brook also clean bowled the more free-scoring Ford (45) to give Gloucestershire a glimmer of hope at 146-4. But the fifth wicket pair of Alex Holifield and Ed Butler soon put any thought of a Gloucestershire win to bed with a quickfire partnership of 25 to secure victory.


Gloucestershire Women v Scotland (at Cove CC)
ECB Women’s T20 County Championship – Division 2
Gloucestershire 83-9 (20 overs)
Scotland 84-1 (13.3 overs)
Scotland won by 9 wickets

And

Gloucestershire Women v Hampshire (at Cove CC)
ECB Women’s T20 County Championship – Division 2
Hampshire 157-3 (20 overs)
Gloucestershire 55 all out (14.3 overs)
Hampshire won by 102 runs

Gloucestershire Women suffered a tough start to life in the ECB T20 Second Division as they were well beaten by both Scotland and Hampshire.

In their first games since winning promotion last season, a young Gloucestershire side that included 14-year-old debutants Bea Ellis (Charlton Kings) and Isabel Carey (Frenchay) struggled against their more experienced opposition.

Against Scotland, Gloucestershire started well, reaching 29 for no wicket before losing openers Abby Evans (13) and Chloe Skelton (6) (Newent) without adding to the scoreboard. The one bright light for Gloucestershire was Frenchay’s Naima Milhofer who top-scored with 27 off 34 balls. But with no one else able to make double figures Gloucestershire limped to 83-9 from their 20 overs.

Scotland made short work of the run chase, reaching their target in the 14th over for the loss of one wicket – Sidra Khan (1-25) (Bristol Phoenix) wit the only breakthrough.

In the Hampshire match, Gloucestershire got off to the perfect start when Lucy Farrant removed Charlie Dean (0) with the second ball of the game. Hampshire added 34 for the second wicket before Charlie Phillips (1-16) (Brislington) had former Gloucestershire player Fi Morris stumped by Nat Wraith (Frenchay) for 2. This proved to be nothing more than a minor blip for Hampshire as Ella Chandler (44) and Emily Windsor (30*) put on 57. Khan (1-14) eventually trapped Chandler LBW but this only made things worse for Gloucestershire as her replacement Katie George smashed an unbeaten 50 off 27 balls.

Chasing 158 to win Gloucestershire lost an early wicket but got themselves back in the game with a run a ball partnership of 25 between Evans (14) and Wraith (12). But when Wraith fell it sparked a collapse that saw Gloucestershire lose their last nine wickets for 28 runs.

Oxfordshire Under 11 Boys v Gloucestershire Under 11 Boys (at St Edward’s School, Oxford)
Friendly
Gloucestershire 132-6 (40 overs)
Oxfordshire 119 all out (39.2 overs)
Gloucestershire won by 13 runs

Gloucestershire Under-11s made it three wins from three with a 13-run win over Oxfordshire.

Ben Long (Rockhampton) took 4-27 as the visitors bowled their hosts out for 119 after having posted 132-6 from their 40 overs

Having won the toss Henry Trotman (Winterbourne) and Iwan Price (Thornbury) opened the batting and put on 34 before Price (3) was trapped LBW by Jack Veal.

His replacement Jamie Brooks (4) (Bristol YMCA) was unfortunate to cut a long hop straight to cover – to make it 48-2. And Gloucestershire were in deeper trouble soon after as Trotman was run out for 33. Having been comfortable at 48-1, the visitors were now 49-3.

Zaman Shafi (Bristol YMCA) came to the wicket and looked as elegant as usual in making 17 out of a partnership of 20 with Oliver Bell (10) (Keynsham) before becoming the fourth wicket to fall.

Gloucestershire continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and struggled to increase the run rate as the innings entered its closing stages. Lewis Rollinson (Dumbleton) finished on 26 not out but after closing on 132-6 the team felt they were around 40 runs short of what they felt was a competitive total.

In reply Oxfordshire came out of the blocks quickly with a few early boundaries. But Spencer Gammon (Whitchurch) (1-12) and Henry Snow (Dumbleton) (0-13) managed to tighten their line and length before the former made the breakthrough to make it 18-1.

Oxfordshire recovered through Julian Laird and Henry Welch, reaching 47-1 at the 14 over drinks break.

Joint captains Trotman and Snow then opted for a ‘pace off’ approach, introducing spinners Long and Brooks (2-19). Both bowled beautifully, Brooks demonstrating accuracy in line and length and long spinning the ball sideways. Between them they built pressure and created plenty of wicket-taking chances. During their 16 over spell they wrestled control of the game away from Oxfordshire, reducing them from 48-1 to 77-8.

The required run rate was only around four per over but Shafi and Henry Williams (Stoke Bishop) continued to maintain the pressure. Gloucestershire sensed an opportunity to push for victory but became frustrated by the Oxfordshire number 10 Jack Sparrow who played with a mixture of luck and great maturity to inch his side closer to their target of 133.

He was still at the crease going into the last over but the home side faced an uphill task with 18 more needed for victory and just one wicket remaining. Shafi’s first ball of the last over sailed to the boundary to heighten the tension. However, ice cool Shafi tossed up another leg spinner which was skied by Sparrow (24) and taken safely by Price to start the Gloucestershire celebrations.

Wales Under 12 Boys v Gloucestershire Under 12 Boys (at Newport CC)
Friendly
Wales 164 all out (39.5 overs)
Gloucestershire 165-5 (27.5 overs)
Gloucestershire won by 5 wickets

Ottie Landale (Cirencester) smashed an unbeaten 67 from 53 balls to help Gloucestershire cruise to a five wicket win over Wales with more than 22 overs to spare.

Landale struck five fours and a six and shared in an unbroken sixth wicket stand of 49 with Edward Johnson (Lansdown) who scored 30 from 26 balls to secure the win.

Earlier, Gloucestershire loss the toss but made the most of being asked to bowl first by reducing Wales to 83-8 with wickets at regular intervals. Opening bowlers Ethan Corbett (1-21) (Dumbleton) and Freddie Collinson (1-24) (Gloucester City Winget) both struck with the new ball before Max Dunne (4-23) (Frocester) and Johnson (3-23) decimated the Welsh middle order.

But from 83-8 the home side managed to almost double their score thanks to an eighth wicket stand of 44 and a last wicket partnership of 37. Number 10 Will Norman finished on 39 not out to ensure his side had something to bowl at.

In reply, Gloucestershire found themselves in trouble at 32-3. But the introduction of Landale steadied the ship and put Gloucestershire back on course. He added 72 with Freddie Sharp (40) for the fourth wicket and despite Gloucestershire losing two more wickets they reached their target in the 28th over with five wickets left.