After two wins on the bounce, Ashton Keynes made the short trip to Barnsley looking to make it 3 from 3 and register their first away win of the season. Captain Abbley won the toss and after deep consideration for, all of, half a second he chose to bat. Ford and Kelly took to the crease and battled hard against some early swing and accurate bowling taking the score to 31 before Kelly fell, caught, trying to loft an on drive over mid-on. Ford soon followed, chipping a simple catch to short cover leaving Ashton struggling on 36/2. Abbley and the in-form Shelley counter attacked, looking like they were playing on a different wicket to the opening pair. Boundaries were being hit all around the ground and fantastic running between the wicket took the partnership to 59 when Abbley was then deceived by Dykes slower ball, giving a return catch to the bowler. Bradley replaced Captain Abbley at the crease, but he was soon removed by a dubious LBW decision without troubling the scorers. When Waller was bowled through the gate for 0, Ashton were in a bit of trouble at 111/5. Thomas strolled out to join Shelley, and once again the two worked well together with Shelley going into boundary hitting mode while Thomas blocked out. Just as a big score looked on the horizon, with Thomas beginning to release the handbrake, he was bowled by the impressive Thomson for 14. Shelley’s impressive knock of 87 came to an end soon after, Barnsley getting the bit of luck they needed with the ball keeping low and clipping his off stump. A fine cameo at the end by M Brooks (18*) helped the tail wag and took Ashton to 194/9 off their 40 overs.
After a fine tea, Ashton took to the field with Finnie and Shelley taking the new ball. Barnsleys opening pair looked to attack and took advantage of Ashton being unusually slack in the field, racing to 80/0 after 10 overs. Captain Abbley had to make a change and decided to take the pace off the ball by turning to himself and Waller who started to slow down the run rate. The duo then combined to take the wicket of Coulter, who skied a Waller delivery into the gleeful hands of Abbley. Dharmathileka went past 50 and then tried an audacious reverse sweep, only to hit it straight to M Brooks at point. Barnsley looked to keep the pressure on the visitors with some big hitting, however Dykes could only find Abbley in the deep and after a fine piece of teamwork in the field causing a run out, Barnsley were 4 down and Ashton were back in the game. Abbley replaced himself with Thomas and with the help of Waller they brought the run rate to a standstill. Waller then struck again, bowling Field through the gate with a vicious turning delivery to get his 4th wicket of the match. Not to be outdone, Thomas got in the action by picking up two quick wickets, both caught by Waller as Barnsley looked to release the pressure. He then found the edge of Walker, M Brooks this time with a diving, one handed catch at gully. Abbley would then get his third catch in the deep, Jeffries miss-timing a slog off Thomas who finished with outstanding figures of 4/12. Finnie then returned to take the final wicket, a trademark Yorker that the batsman could only inside edge on to his stumps, giving Ashton the win by 62 runs.
Once again Shelley standing out with the bat in a fine team effort for Ashton’s 5th win of the season, as many as they won last season. Next week brings Longborough & Sezincote CC to the Fortress Bradstone as Ashton look for an unprecedented 4th win in a row.