Bedford Cricket Club’s Saturday side fell short of a place in the final of the knockout stages of the Northamptonshire Cricket League at the weekend with a five-wicket loss at Bugbrooke.
The knockout journey started last weekend; the side gaining a home quarter-final courtesy of finishing 3rd out of 12 in the shortened league stage and they took full advantage.
Hosting Loddington & Mawsley, Bedford bowled first, taking regular wickets in dismissing their opponents for 127.
Connor Andrews set the tone with 3-17 from his allocation of 8 overs, with the pacey Rajpreet Sidhu and all-rounder Shiv Odedra taking two wickets apiece.
The chase was always comfortable – if a touch slow – but Jonny Dove’s compact 70 was supplemented by Vedant Somal’s composed unbeaten 36 as Bedford coasted home with a little over 4 overs to spare.
That victory set up a semi-final at Bugbrooke Cricket Club, the former home of Northamptonshire and England’s David Capel who passed away last week.
Bedford were put into bat on a dreadfully turgid wicket, and despite Tom Blythman launching three sixes in the opening couple of overs, that was as good as it got, as Bedford posted just 113.
This was despite a dogged unbeaten 46 for Ramkumar Jayaraman who at least gave the Bedford bowlers something to bowl at.
Bugbrooke however got a decent start, and despite spurts of wickets for Bedford to keep them in the game, they ran out of runs and fell by 5 wickets, signalling the end of their season.
In the youth ranks, the Under 15’s waved goodbye to the junior system with a final game at Harrold, enjoying a 32-run victory.
Ryan Chambers and Vedant Somal were both in the runs, as Bedford posted 146-4, bowling their opponents out for 114.
The Under 11’s enjoyed a couple of friendly wins against Eaton Socon and Blunham respectively.
Alexander Sawyer and Monty Lomax gave Bedford enough runs to defeat Eaton Socon last Sunday, with Aditya Nair gaining 2-19 in the defence as Bedford won by just 7 runs.
Connor Brownridge was the star of the show against Blunham with 24 off just 11 balls propelling Bedford to 108, while most of the bowlers got in on the action, restricting Blunham to just 64 in response.
It was also a momentous week for Bedford School, who boasted three Old Boys in one side in the first-class cricket scene.
Batsmen Charlie Thurston and Emilio Gay were joined by debutant keeper Harry Gouldstone in their final Bob Willis Trophy fixture against Gloucestershire.
However, the momentous occasion was cut short for Gouldstone as the game was called off after just one session due to a positive Covid-19 test for an unnamed Northamptonshire player.
All three will hope to kick on next season as the full calendar continues, while Bedford Cricket Club will aim for promotions across the board in pursuit of their journey back to the top.
