Last weekend the University of Gloucestershire Cricket team travelled down to Cardiff to play in Indoor BUCS at Sophia Gardens. The eight-man squad had an early start leaving Oxstalls Campus at 7am. It didn’t get off to a good start after fresher, Toby Rice, realised he had forgotten to bring something quite important: his bat. Luckily all it meant was that he would have to borrow a teammate’s but not ideal, nonetheless.
UoG were competing in the West Division B against the likes of Swansea, UWE, Cardiff and University of South Wales. Starting off with a 19-run victory over Swansea 1’s, the boys were full of confidence. Captain, Ryan Kilminster believed, “it definitely settled a lot of nerves for the younger lads in the group, it makes my job easier.”
In their three remaining games UoG went unbeaten, a stunning achievement. The pick of the bunch being a huge victory over Cardiff 1s, a huge scalp considering the difference in size between the universities. Batting first, Gloucestershire set a total of 119 from ten overs, including an unexpected source of runs, 26 from Justin Murphy. Cardiff then had to chase but only 15 runs into that chase UoG had cleaned through their batting lineup for a 104-run drubbing.
“We bowled them out in 2 overs for 15 which none of us expected to do.”
– Justin Murphy, bowler.
The final game of the day was another win, this time a nail-biter against University of South Wales:
“It came to the final over which I had to bowl which was nerve racking defending 14 against their opener who has just came back in after retiring. When I got hit for six second ball I felt that I had let the boys down with all the hard work we had put in over the day but I just backed my skills with the ball, when we ran him out in the second to last ball my confidence grew when I knew they needed to hit me for six in the last ball. Overall it was an incredible day for us to go unbeaten and I can’t wait to go again in a couple of weeks.” Justin Murphy.
The teams left for UoG to play in the tournament are UWE, pre-tournament favourites Cardiff Met 1’s as well as their 2’s. These games will take place on 18th November with a big following anticipated from the cricket club in what could be a historic day.
“I couldn’t be happier with the boys today, including one of the best performances I’ve seen playing for the university”.
Ryan Kilminster, Captain
For more news throughout the day follow the live blog here.
