Tucker Finds Plenty of Early Season Form

Marc Williamson’s first game in charge as the newly appointed 1st XI captain ended with a well fought victory. Having won the toss, Swindon elected to bat. On a pitch that was offering something for the bowler, Williamson (10) was bowled with a good seaming delivery.

Conor Taylor came to the crease with Chris Aubrey, however Taylor (6) fell to another probing delivery with the score 18-2. Alex Kill joined Aubrey and the pair began to build a solid watchful partnership, slowly upping the run rate. As the pair reach 61, Kill (16) was unfortunately run out by a sharp long throw.

The run out sparked a collapse, with Aubrey (27) being bowled shortly after without scoring another run. 3 ducks in a row left Swindon on 65-7 and staring down the barrel of a tough day.

Fortunately, some fine batting from Adam Tucker and James Parkinson rebuilt the innings. Where often last year, the team would have struggled to post a competitive score from a similar situation, the pair instead put on a 75 run partnership. Parkinson (31) was eventually bowled but had given the team a real chance of turning the game around.

Tucker continued on his way, peppering the near by houses with some big 6s, supported by Scott McNeill (4) and Connor O’Shea (11). Swindon were eventually bowled out for 180 with Tucker unbeaten on 65.

In response, Chippenham got off to an immense start, putting Taylor (9-48-3) and McNeill (6-44-0) under immediate pressure with some aggressive shots. When Taylor bowled one of the openers with a fantastic delivery, only to be called back for a no ball, Swindon were well and truly up against it.

Williamson turned to spin, and quickly reaped the rewards as Tucker (7.2-12-3) got the breakthrough to leave Chippenham on 67-1. Taylor then produced a sharp full delivery to take another, before the introduction of Kill (9-33-2) saw him take a wicket in his first over. This helped to pull some control back with Chippenham reduced to 82-3.

Tucker and Kill continued to plug away, picking up wickets and keeping the scoring down. Connor O’Shea (4-14-2) replaced Tucker and picked up where he left off. From 67-0, the game had been turned on its head and victory was in sight with the score at 142-8.

Final Wickets from Taylor and O’Shea soon followed to secure a 28 run victory. The team had recovered well in both innings when the pressure was on and has shown a new maturity that can only bring confidence for the season ahead.

Marc Williamson – “I was very pleased with the performance, although it's only a preseason friendly there is a sense of relief after getting over the line. The first competitive win is now the next target in view. There was definitely some rustiness on both sides of the game, we lost some early wickets and conceded a few too many early on in their innings. It was especially pleasing the way we reacted.

Adam is a massive player for us, he's got the ability to balance us out with the bat, he can play many different types of innings and his left arm spin absolutely changed the game on Saturday.

There are some things that we'd like to iron out before the first game, we've got a couple weeks of netting on grass wickets and two games this weekend so should have ample time to work with Wayne on those.

Adam Tucker – “It was really pleasing that we managed to get to a competitive score after a mini collapse in the middle, before going on to defend the total. In the past we would have folded tamely and may not have got to 100. It’s something that we’ve wanted to improve on and if we can take that through the season it should stand us in very good stead.

We lost 3 wickets in a very short space of time, so I had no choice but to occupy the crease. James Parkinson managed to stay with me and we were able to build a good partnership, which set up the total.

When I came on to bowl they were flying along, so I was desperate to take a wicket to stem the flow of runs. Fortunately, that happened and we were able to take regular wickets from then on.

We’ve had a good preparation this season and we’ve won two competitive friendlies, which puts us in a great position going into the league season. We’ve got a far more capable batting line up than last season’s results suggest, so we just need to go out and produce more as a batting group to supplement our strong bowling unit.

Next week sees 2 games:

Friendly vs Corsham
National Knockout vs Potterne (a)