Sat. 24th August. Wiltshire County Cricket League – Division 4 Melksham 185-8 Ramsbury 186-6
ANOTHER defeat has left Melksham just outside the relegation zone of Division 4, with one game remaining in the season.
The club remain in eight place in the league with 181 points. Close behind in ninth and tenth place are Marlborough with 171 points and Corsham with 169 points. For their penultimate match against Ramsbury, Melksham played at home at Melksham House. Melksham won the toss and elected to bat. Their top batsman was Jack Footner with 44 runs. The team clocked up 185 runs from 45 overs. After the break, Ramsbury won the match by 1 run, clocking up a total of 186.
Melksham’s last game of the season is away to Royal Wootton Bassett at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground, this Saturday, 31st August.
Sat. 17th Aug. Corsham 122-4 Melksham 119-9
Melksham’s difficult campaign took yet another turn for the worse, losing away to fellow Division 4 strugglers, Corsham 3s, in a game that could have huge ramifications come the end of the season.
Winning the toss and batting first, the visitors got off to a lethargic start, thanks to the tight bowling of the young Corsham opening bowlers. This put pressure on the Melksham opening duo of Roy Veacock and Daniel Carpenter and eventually this pressure told when Veacock was removed for 10 in the 11th over. Runs continued to be hard to come by; with Carpenter being dismissed for 17 in the 18th over to leave his side 39-2.
Skipper Joe Veacock was then caught for 4 runs just 2 overs later, leaving Melksham in big trouble. Gareth Evans increased the run-rate but was sent back to the pavilion having been unable to capitalize on his good start of 21. It was a similar story for Jack Footner, who made the same score as Evans before he too was dismissed. At this point the score stood at an unsatisfactory 100-6 off 36 overs, and the tail enders struggled to get their side out of the rut. Come the end of the innings the travelling side had only mustered 120 runs for the loss of 9 wickets, a score they knew that they would only defend if they produced a sensational performance in the field.
As the 2nd innings commenced, Melksham received a much-needed boost when opening bowlers Gary Ings and Liam Merrett produced their best in their first few overs with Ings making the breakthrough in the 11th over. He would collect another scalp a few overs later – going on to finish with figures of 2-21 off 9 – to leave Corsham 42-2 after 18 overs, with Melksham sensing that they still had a chance of pulling off an extraordinary comeback win.
The next few overs saw Corsham adding few runs to their total but crucially not losing any more wickets. They creeped their way to a total of 81 off 26 overs, before Joe Veacock plundered two wickets in the following over to keep his side in the contest. Their hopes of snatching a crucial win were then suddenly snuffed out though by Corsham batman Ian Sandell, who embarked on an explosive blitz and being aided by some dropped catches – to in the space of 4 overs see his side home to a key win in their own battle to avoid the drop.
