Burnham-on-Sea CC - 1st XI 184 / 6 (37) def. Staplegrove CC - 1st XI 183 / All out (44.4)

BURNHAM hosted Staplegrove in week two of the SCL campaign and managed to earn a four wicket victory.

Skipper Brad House won the toss and had the easy decision of bowling first again.

Staplegrove got off to a good start, putting on 69 runs for their first wicket, with a couple of umpiring decisions going their way.

Matt Dibble again was unfortunate to not pick up any wickets, but bowled 9 overs straight through, and would’ve came away with much better figures if Burnham could’ve held their chances. 

Burnham did well to keep the run rate down, with change bowlers, Harris and Lefrere, both bowling 9 overs for 33 and 36 runs respectively, with a wicket each.

The floodgates opened when 1st XI debutant Joe O’Neill was brought into the attack, the 17 year old picked up four wickets in his six overs, including the dangerous Thomas Pantling, for 73 runs.

This swung the momentum and put Burnham in the driving seat.

Staplegrove were bowled out for 184. Given they were 113/1, Burnham certainly held the ascendency going into the second innings. 

Burnham’s innings was Dominated by Brad House, who found the boundary regularly against the new ball.

Staplegrove then took the approach of trying to starve House of the strike, this reduced the run rate, but singles were easy to come by, and with only 184 on the board to chase, Burnham didn’t need to worry about boundaries.

South African - Wes Kruger, knocked it around with House with relative ease, taking Burnham up to 107 before Kruger was bowled for a very important 36 runs by Lawrence.

Staplegrove did go on to pick up a handful of wickets, but cameos from Harris (17) and Dibble (15), took Burnham to within six runs of victory with four wickets remaining.

Connor Lefrere calmly knocked off the remaining runs, to give Burnham a 35 point victory. Brad House remained unbeaten on 70 from 102 balls. 

Speaking afterwards, House said: “Very pleased to pick up a max points win after the disappointing loss to Weston last week. Although we let ourselves down in the field again, the bowling was superb.

"Langer and O’Neill will take most of the plaudits for their 4fers but all of the bowlers were spot on today.

"In terms of the batting, I thought it was a pretty convincing chase, Staplegrove weren’t really in the game at any point, Kruger showed his quality with the bat, the 70 partnership between him and I put us in a really dominant position.

"It could’ve got a bit nervy towards the end after the flurry of wickets, but the early work done by the bowlers gave us plenty of wiggle room and run rate was never an issue."

Burnham host Wedmore at home next week.