another series of professional performances in the Bowness Trophy saw the "Friends from North Hampshire" retain the Trophy at Falkland CC.
A semi final against Thatcham was a relative formality as Thatcham elected to bat and were dismissed for 98 with a fantastic bowling and fielding performance never allowing Thatcham to create any pressure with the bat. Henry Chapman 3-0-20-3, Cameron Flack 4-1-7-2, Duncan Johnson 3-0-14-2 and James Bird 3.2-0-16-2 taking the wickets for Woodhay.
In response the heavily "over tired" Tom Flack with 27 and the more sprightly George Walters with 41 took the score to 90-2 in the 14th over as Ollie Batchelor 9* and James Bird 10* saw Woodhay home with 6 overs to spare.
In the 2nd semi final hosts Falkland dispatched Newbury setting up a repeat of the 2019 Final, in which Woodhay also chose to bat first. A decision that looked somewhat dubious as the Woodhay batsmen struggled to make any real impression against the Falkland bowling, with the experienced Beal and Trumper keeping everyone in check, wickets fell steadily as Walters (9), T Flack (13), James Bird (12) and Ollie Batchelor (5) with Woodhay reaching 53 - 4 in the first 10 overs.
Skipper Joe Lawrance (48) batted sensibly and steadily to hold the innings together as he lost Adam Barnes (8), Duncan Johnson (6) and Alan Williams (5) only youngster Henry Chapman (16) stayed with him as they pushed to score to 135-8 in the 20th over when Lawrance departed, another couple of quick wickets saw the Woodhay innings finish on 138 all out off their 20 overs.
Graham Beal 4-0-19-3 and Nigel Trumper 4-0-19-2 being the pick of the Falkland bowlers.
The Falkland response started fast as Piper and Lauder took 17 off the 1st over but the combination of Williams and Bird slowed the scoring and Falkland were 42-2 off 8, needing 96 off 12. Top scorer Piper was dismissed for 37 in the 12th over by Johnson and once Will Herrington (21) was removed by a Falkland Alumni combination of Bird and Flack their response petered out with some defiance by Beal (14) and Dash (13) helping them reach 120-9 off their allotted overs.
The pick of the Woodhay bowlers being Tom Flack 3-0-20-3, James Bird 3-0-10-2 and Henry Chapman 4-0-25-2.
Another day when each player contributed to the success over both games, thanks also to Ian Gardner and Nick Bird who umpired both matches. Roll on 2021 and hopefully we can defend the title once more.