Gloucestershire County League Division 2

Stone 1sts v Cranham

A CULTURED 53 not out from Dave Jones led Stone to victory as they opened their 2015 season with a comfortable six-wicket victory over newly promoted Cranham.

Stone bowlers Pete Lavis and Charlie Viney found it difficult to breakdown the defences of Cranham openers James Pockett and Steffan Franklin.

As the score edged towards 40, Stone captain Alan Sherman (1-26) introduced himself into the attack and picked up Franklin’s wicket for 27.

This brought Boaks to the crease who punished anything loose.

He made progess until bowled by James Barnes (1-34) for 20.

Sherman continued to ring the bowling changes and it paid dividends when Ian Hall (1-26) had Pockett caught behind in his second over for 16.

The introduction of 16-year-old James Thomas seemed to swing the balance in Stone’s favour when he had the dangerous Alex Pockett caught in the deep for 14.

Thomas struck again soon after as Williamson was smartly stumped by Pete Booth for eight, reducing the visitors to 106-5.

Mears bashed 17 from one Hall over but shortly after, he was trapped LBW by Thomas for 29 who returned with excellent figure of 3-26 off nine overs.

Despite the best efforts of Lavis (1-34) and Viney (0-13), Stone could not see off the Cranham tail and the visitors closed their innings on 169-8.

Stone openers Lavis and Sherman looked to build a solid foundation and did so very briskly with 48 from nine overs.

Lavis, in particular, produced some scintillating shots until he was trapped LBW by James Pockett for 28.

Sherman followed a few overs for 17. Chris Barnes and Dave Jones looked to steady the ship before Barnes was bowled by Pockett for nine. Pete Booth arriving and departed for four and Greg Allen made his way to the crease with Stone looking in relative control and with patience being the key, victory was looking more certain.

Jones began to cut loose with some of his trademark shots and despite some speculative calling for runs in the later stages, together the pair put on 65 with Jones hitting the winning runs in the 40th over, bringing up his fifty in the process.

Allen, playing the supporting role, finished on 22 not out to ensure Stone picked up 19 points to cap a fine all-round team performance.

Stone travel to Shurdington this weekend.