Pepall and Stephens lead Almondsbury fight

ALMONDSBURY continued their fight against relegation on Saturday with a hard fought win over Twyford House. The home side batted first and found life difficult against the new ball attack of Tommy Armfield and Greg Stephens. Only 29 runs came from the first 17 overs as Mark Fowler and Ian Blakemore took advantage of Almondsbury's failure to take their chances. These two batsmen took the score onto 90 before the first wicket fell to the prolific Steve Braund in the 30th over removing Blakemore, who was well caught by Deepak at mid-off for 45. The introduction of Fraser Pepall, making a rare appearance, soon removed Steven Byas for six, well caught by Craig Thompson at cover. Opening batsman Fowler succumbed to the guile of Pepall, brilliantly caught by skipper Stephens on the long on boundary for 45. Ross Sutton was next to go, comfortably taken at point for three by Ross Wakley, again off Pepall. The pressure from the Almondsbury bowlers did not let up as Braund bowled Neil Hall for a duck, and followed that up with the wicket of Mark Wilson, aided by a well taken catch from Kyle Hartigan for 22. Braund then claimed his fourth wicket, as Ashley Hall was stumped by Paul Martin for four. Andy Nairn (10) was the 8th and final wicket to fall with Stephens taking his second boundary catch and giving Pepall his fourth. Stephens (9-3-11-0), Armfield (10-2-24-0), Braund (12-0-46-4) and Pepall (8-0-42-4) all bowled well as a unit in restricting the home side to an attainable total. Almondsbury got off to a bad start as Tom Burgess was caught behind for a duck off Fowler. Craig Thompson soon followed, bowled by Fowler for seven, and when Deepak fell victim to Nairn for 21, the Almondsbury side were teetering at 36-3. Skipper Stephens though remained solid at one end and had brief support from Ross Wakley before Wakley fell for 16, caught behind off Ashley Hall with the score on 72. Kyle Hartigan came and went for four and with the score on 84-5, Twyford were in the driving seat. At this point the game began to swing round as new batsman Paul Martin put the home side to the sword with some polished cover drives. He scored 27 before being adjudged lbw off Byas. Tommy Armfield then joined his skipper, and the pair saw Almondsbury home by four wickets with 11 balls to spare, but not before Stephens had brought up a fine half century. Stephens finished 51 not out off 119 balls in 140 minutes with Armfield undefeated on 18. Fowler (10-2-31-2) and Hall (7-3-26-2) were the main wicket takers for Twyford but Almondsbury continue with their efforts to catch the pack.