The 1st XI of Uphill Castle continued their impressive preseason form with a dominate 44 run victory over Lympsham and Belvedere.
Under blue skies and a socially distanced returning crowd, both captains agreed the toss and The Castle batted first. This gave Neil Chadwick the chance to give his bowlers some overs in their legs. Uphill again looked to the new opening partnership of Hayden Watts and George Chapman to build a strong start. Watts was eager to continue his fine form from the Shaftesbury Rd game 2 weeks earlier, where as Chapman was keen to have some much needed time in the middle.
The opening partnership looks to be promising development for the 1st XI. With Chapman the main stay of the top order for The Castle in recent seasons, and to the delight of the Uphill faithful Watts returns to the team and looks to be returning the form he had before illness.
Chapman looked shaky at the start, which left Watts to take charge of the situation. The aggressive Watts soon took the attack to Lympsham opening bowling attack, producing shots 360 degrees of the pitch. In his innings of 64 he struck 11 fours, before skipper Andy Llewellyn brought him to make sure the team all got much needed time in the middle.
Chapman soon found his feet and after some lucky shots, began to play his signature textbook shots and managed to a decent 30 before being bowled by Jack Neville. Uphill continued to be aggressive throughout the innings. The bullish wicket keeper batman Paddy Holyday produced a quickfire 29 including 3 huge sixes, before getting caught by Chadwick.
This brought Tom Llewellyn to crease who in typical form began to tear the Lympsham bowling attack apart. His innings of 53 from just 6 overs saw him hit 4 fours and 4 sixes. For such a dominating innings Llewellyn gave very few chances. His clean hitting gave the returning crowd plenty to cheer about.
Uphill finished their innings 248 for 4. Wickets were shared by the L&B bowler with Jack Luff finishing with 2 wickets, and Jack Neville and Neil Chadwick picking one up a piece.
Uphill began well with Jack Fowler picking up the wicket of the dangerous Dave Luff LBW for just 7. Unfortunately, this was to be Fowlers only part in the game before injury forced him from the field.
The Castle were regularly taking wickets throughout the innings with the spin twins of Ward and the impressive Watts picking up 3 wickets between them. Resistance began when Neil Chadwick (40) and Tom Gooding (60) built up an impressive 5th wicket partnership.
George Cox was brought back into the attack and his pace, something that Uphill have been missing in recent seasons, was just what was needed. Cox finished the match with impressive figures of 4 for 11 from his 6.2 overs.
With the game getting away from L&B captain, Llewellyn took the opportunity to experiment his bowling options. Keen to see what is available for the coming season. Special mention must go to Under 15 bowler Charlie Huke. Huke who was making his 1st XI debut finished with impressive figures of 1 for 38 from 6 overs.
Andy Taylor bludgeoned a well made 53 to L&B to the 200 make before becoming another one of Cox’s victims.
After the game Captain Andy Llewellyn spoke of his delight at the victory. The captain said – Its always good to keep in the habit of winning, but next weeks game at Bridgwater will be a good test for us. Things are moving in the right direction ready for the league to start in 2 weeks’ time. The club is looking great and there is buzz about the place.
Man of the match was awarded to Hayden Watts, for his aggressive 64 n.o, which set the tone of the Castles innings. But also, for his bowling display picking up 2 wickets.
With the season fast approaching, Uphill step up their preseason preparations.
On Saturday, the 1st XI travel to Bridgwater to face what will be strong 2nd XI. With players returning Andy Llewellyn may have some difficult selection issues, after the strong showing in preseason already.
On Sunday, an Uphill Castle XI will face Welsh side Malpas. With players keen to make an impression we look forward to an exciting game.
