| Description: | After winning the toss, the visitors made a brave decision to let Rockhampton bat first on what is now becoming a fortress at The Boundary Field, where Rockhampton made it seven out of seven at home. Skipper Matt Tyler and old timer Jerry White opened up for the hosts and a combination of flicks and drives from Tyler and stubborn defence from White resulted in the pair bring up a fifty partnership. With the score on 73 and 76 both Tyler (34) and White (18) fell leaving Rowan Cartlidge & Will Tyler the task of re-building the innings. Both looked in great form and found the boundary with relative ease and with regularity. Rowan then kicked on into the next gear and brought up his second fifty of the season off 68 balls with a trademark cut shot for four, he then proceeded to go mental and ended up with 85 from 82 balls, including fifteen boundaries before being cleaned up by Sahar (2/68) with the score now on 198/3. Barton then joined Tyler at the crease and immediately looked to give the latter the strike. After a week in Newquay, it was no surprise to see Tyler breakdown with a problem to his hamstring, out came his brother to do his running for him. This didn’t seem to effect Tyler too much and he too passed his fifty before producing an onslaught on the Bassett attack, one shot onto the top of the clubhouse was a particular highlight. The last few overs produced a flurry of wickets, including Tyler (74) and Barton (24) which saw Rockhampton post a more than competitive 272/7 from their fifty overs.
In reply, Bassett got off to the worst possible start as Burdock (1) was caught at short leg by White off the bowling of Will Cartlidge with the score just on 2. Lawro and Chalal looked to build a partnership, playing sensibly and seeing off the new ball before change bowler Jack Spence came on and dismissed the latter for 28 via a superb catch from Matt Tyler, it was hit straight at Brothwood in cover who could only tip into the air, wrong footing Tyler who still managed to stick his right hand out and cling onto the ball, a simply brilliant catch! Pepperpot was the next man to go, first ball to Spence (2/12) again, caught behind by the always impressive Cartlidge. 54/3 soon became 90/5 as firstly Pearce (1/20) got one through Lawro’s defences to see him go LBW for 23 and then Hancox claimed the wicket of captain Mark Vincent (17), who appeared to miss a long-hop. Hancox (3/22) was in a particularly ruthless mood as he claimed a further two wickets to see the visitors crumble to 115/7. Neil Twine played some nice shots in a stubborn 32 before being dismissed caught White bowled Cartlidge (2/43). A comical run-out followed, incredibly conducted by Chris Pearce and then the refusal to bat of the number eleven, Sahar signalled the end of game with Wootton Bassett all out for 143.
With results going their way, Rockhampton are now just one point off the leaders, Biddestone going into Saturday’s trip to Trowbridge. With five games left and the top two to play, Rockhampton know that five wins would guarantee Premier 2 cricket at The Boundary Field next season. Thanks to Bob and Jane Spence for sponsoring the match ball.
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