Ledbury Cricket: Disappointing loss despite bowling showing

Ledbury’s captain Josh Evans won the toss and elected to bowl first on a lovely sunny day for cricket. The ground staff at Orlham Lane had done a wonderful job in making the ground look as stunning as always, and the pitch offered plenty for bowlers.

Jack Trattell once again opened the bowling with excellent accuracy and variation and put early pressure on the attacking Kempsey batsmen.

From the other end, Vicky Evans took full advantage of the batsmen playing attacking, but loose shots, and she capitalised by taking two early wickets.

Trattell also pitched in with one wicket for his efforts. Josh Evans took a vital wicket in his blowing four over spell and Liam Kendrick bowled with terrific accuracy with only 16 runs coming from his six overs.

The pick of the bowlers though, was Tom Hill, who bowled 8.4 overs for just 19 runs and crucially took six wickets in a tremendous spell of fast bowling. In amongst Hill’s six wickets, were two very sharp catches in gully within the same over by Tom Bowring.

Thanks to the tenacity of Ledbury’s bowlers, the usually free flowing Kempsey Amigos batsmen were stunned and they were bowled out for 148 with 10 overs to spare.

However, in reply, Ledbury’s top order batters faltered and were unable to reach Kempsey Amigos very reachable total.

Josh Evans, Nick Gibbons and Tom Bowring all got themselves out to some clever Kempsey bowling which got Ledbury off to a very bad start.

Jack Trattell and Tom Hill steadied the ship somewhat before Trattell was bowled. Hill batted well for 34 runs but sadly at the other end, Ledbury’s wickets fell at regular intervals and eventually they were bowled out for just 111 runs.

Ledbury’s second team had their first league match of the season away to Kington CC.

Captain Rhys Gunter lost the toss and Ledbury were asked to bowl first. It was a special day for opening bowler Mike Warr as he was joined on the field by his son Arthur for the first time.

Mike Warr took the field with his son Arthur for the first time (Image: Ledbury Cricket Club)

Mike took three wickets from his nine overs and Arthur took two himself from his four overs.

Rhys Gunter and Noah Jones also picked up two wickets each and Simon Ritchie chipped in with one to his name as well. Kington were bowled out for 255 runs.

Unfortunately for the second team, their away day in Kington was cut short, as they collapsed to 44 all out from 20 overs.

This was a disappointing day for both Ledbury teams considering how well the bowlers had performed earlier on in the day and a much needed improvement in Ledbury’s batting will be required when the first team travel to bottom of the table Martley CC next Saturday.

The second team will host Hay-on-Wye CC at Orlham Lane.