By Eric Woodmason
It’s going to be a long, hard season at Frocester with Nick Trainor’s men suffering defeats to Bridgwater and Cardiff over the weekend.
The loss of Paul Muchall, Sam Bracey and Ross Martin has reduced the strength in depth and appears to have knocked the confidence of the remaining squad.
On Saturday, Bridgwater strolled to a five-wicket victory with 14 overs to spare following a disastrous batting performance, including two run-outs, which saw Frocester dismissed for 188, with Dan Whincup top-scoring with 32.
In truth, most of the batsmen got a start, but could not progress to a decent score.
Frocester’s chances were not helped by a dropped catch in the first over of the Bridgwater innings.
Tom Lace (62) and George Bartlett (41) were the main contributors and although Perera and Richie Cave picked up two wickets each, the visitors strolled to victory in the 36th over.
On Sunday, Frocester again batted first and produced an improved performance with Uzi Qureshi leading the way with 95, which included 14 boundaries and 1 six.
He was, initially given good support by Louis Gegg with 31 and Tom Wand with 21. Frocester appeared set for a large score at 192-4 from 36 overs, but collapsed to 224 all out in 43 overs.
Tom Morris, Dan Cave and Angus Gegg all picked up a wicket as Cardiff slumped to 35-3, but Alex Milton (65) and Harry Bowles (71) put the visitors on the road to victory which arrived in the 43rd over for the loss of 7 wickets.
Frocester 2nd X1 continued their strong start to the season with a 137 run victory over Chipping Sodbury 1st X1.
Angus Gegg set the tone with a fine 44, but it was a rapid century from Chris Whincup, well supported by a half century from Grant Jansen that lifted Frocester to a massive 344-7.
In reply, Chipping Sodbury were bowled out for 207 in the final over with Sam Birch cleaning up the tail with 3-3.
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