ARMY v BPCC

This was a dismal lacklustre display by BP against a rampant Army side. BP were at total odds with the Aldershot weather which was red hot throughout. The Army won the toss and elected to bat with Reed and Fletcher putting on 85 in 50 minutes before Gareth Morris in the first over of spin bowled Liam Fletcher (46). It was another 96 runs and 52 minutes before Tede Carmichael’s entertaining knock of 54 ended, held by Mick Martin from a skier off Russ Bryan. The runs kept coming through decent stroke play versus mediocre bowling and fielding, with the 3rd wicket falling on 237 when Connor Reed (81) was out to a superb reaction catch, with the gloves, by Richard Wharton off of Duncan Midgley. Skipper Jonathan Boynton was last to fall bowled by George Crossley off the final ball for a wonderful 119 in 83 minutes from 74 balls, including 13 x 4’s and 2 x 6’s. His partner in a 4th wicket stand of 128 was Tommy Lester unbeaten on 37. Only Andy Sidgreaves with 30 runs from 7 overs could take any positives from the BP bowling figures.

The reply showed improvement, Richard Wharton getting a maiden BP 50 and 40’s came from Mick Martin (48) and Ted Roe (43). However BP were never up with the rate and were well beaten by 105 runs but had 3 wickets remaining finishing on 260.

This victory by the Army broke a few records. It was the first time that a side other than a county (4 of them) had scored 300+ versus BP. The Army became the 2nd highest scorers ever against BP behind Nottinghamshire’s 387-3 in 1979. It was also the highest match aggregate score 625-11 beating the 593-14 when BP defeated the Prison Service in 2010.