John Gale on his way to his first Wiltshire League century

VETERAN Corsham opening batsman John Gale realised a remaining ambition by at last scoring a Wiltshire County Cricket League century in Saturday's opening home Division Five league fixture against Devizes 3rds.

However, the story could have been very different had Devizes taken one of the seven catches offered during his innings.

Corsham captain Martin Hick won the toss, and elected to bat in warm, dry conditions. Gale was joined by newcomer, Tom Collings and it was Collings who settled in first, taking boundaries from Dunford's first two overs.

Meanwhile Gale was finding the accurate pace of Wiltshire over 50s player Les Wellings difficult to score off.

With the score on 22, Collings was yorked by Dunford for 16 to bring Thomas Shardlow to the crease. The older man found runs easier to come by than Gale, but only 41 runs came from the first 16 overs when both bowlers were replaced by Devizes' second string attack of John Downey and Dave Keane.

While Downey's left arm inswingers were proving hard to get away, Keane offered the batsman the opportunity to move the score along more readily.

Gale offered no fewer than three chances to the same fielder with pulls to deep mid-on off Keane which were all spurned. However, there were plenty of scoring opportunities for both batsmen and the century mark was passed in the 30th over.

Gale brought up his own half century in the 32nd over, but in an effort to increase the rate, Shardlow played all round a straight ball from change bowler Bill Keane, much to the youngster's delight, and departed for 46 of the 111 for two.

With overs slipping by, and being given the lion's share of the strike by Chris Bush, Gale launched an onslaught on the tiring bowling attack and while surviving another four dropped catches, brought up the illusive century just ten overs later, despite the return into the attack of the Devizes opening bowlers, Dunford and Wellings who went for 34 and 29 respectively in their final four overs. Similar treatment was handed out to John Downey who, having conceded just twelve runs in his first seven overs, went for 28 in his final four.

With Bush taking his score to 30 after surviving a catch behind the stumps, and Gale remaining undefeated on 111, Corsham's final score was 216 for two.

The Devizes reply started badly, with Dunford being bowled off his pads in Paul Smith's opening over, and Les Wellings missing a straight ball from Martin Hick attempting a repeat of the shot that brought him a boundary two balls earlier.

Smith then removed Herbst in his next over to leave Devizes reeling at 7 for three. Two overs later this became 12 for four as Steve Chapman presented a gentle catch to Adam Mitchell at mid-on off the bowling of Smith.

Skipper John Downey brought some control to proceedings and helped himself to two boundaries off Hick on his way to 14 when he was bowled to give Martin Hick his second wicket. The brothers Jopling became Hick's next victims after Dave chipped to Adam Mitchell and Andy was bowled.

After eight overs apiece, Hick and Smith gave way to Adam Mitchell and Terry Rogers. Mitchell found it difficult to find the line and length that served him well at Keevil the previous week, but a smart one-handed catch by Liam Sumsion at short midwicket gave him his first wicket as Adam Divortt left for two.

Sumsion also gave Rogers his first wicket by catching Dave Keane, while Jacob Unwin, taking over behind the stumps from Thomas Shardlow after 17 overs, smartly stumped an unhappy Bill Keane to terminate the Devizes innings for a meagre 46 runs to leave Corsham 4ths winners by a massive 170 runs.

Paul Smith took three for eight in his eight overs and Martin Hick took four for 34 in his eight. Adam Mitchell took one for eight in his three overs and Terry Rogers took two for three in 2.4 overs.

2:49pm Monday 12th May 2008

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