Potterne v Bristol, WEPL T20, 17 June 2018
Bristol 277-5, W Young 146
Potterne 186-6, J Roberts 48no, W Rudge 3-28
Bristol progressed to the finals of the WEPL T20 competition thanks to a peerless unbeaten innings of 146 from Will Young. Bristol set the home side a target of close to 14 an over, which, even with the Potterne ground’s notoriously short boundaries, was always going to be beyond them. Young struck an incredible 18 sixes, along with 5 fours, and scored off all but 13 of the 55 balls legitimate balls he faced. His second fifty came off 14 balls in 12 minutes and he faced just 11 further balls to get within a boundary of his 150. Bristol’s batsmen struck 27 sixes in total, three of them to James Bracey in a 21-ball 30, three more to Tommy Probert in a 9-ball unbeaten 27 at then end, and one each to Fin Trenouth, Will Rudge (both of whom scored 12 off 5 balls) and Jack Ellison. Ellison also hit 4 fours in a 19-ball 32, and put on 98 with Young in 48 balls. Although the small dimensions of Potterne’s ground inflated the score somewhat, many of these blows would have cleared the ropes on most grounds.
Potterne needed a good start if they were to stand any chance, and they didn’t get it, Rudge picking up two wickets in his opening two-over spell to leave the home side 19 for 2. Although Cullen (21 off 11 balls), Morrison (43 off 30), Wijerathne (29 off 22) and Roberts (48 not out off 29) briefly threatened to mount a challenge, all were dismissed before they could do any serious damage. Paul Redwood plucking a tracer-bullet out of the air at short cover to remove the dangerous Cullen was the highlight amongst the dismissals. Rudge was the pick of the bowlers, but none of them was overly expensive in the context of the game, and Probert, Patel and Shaw shared the other three wickets to fall.
Potterne ended well short, and the final boundary count was telling: Potterne hit nine more fours than Bristol, but 23 fewer sixes. Bristol will face a three-way clash against Winterbourne and Clevedon in early July with the winner qualifying for the national competition.