Barrow Gurney dropped out of the automatic promotion places in Bristol & District Division Five after a disappointing display in defeat against Pucklechurch.
Pucklechurch, batting first, set out at a blistering pace with their openers putting on 48 in no time, but Mark Fisher pegged them back with an excellent spell of bowling aided by a couple of sharp catches in the field.
Fisher bowled his eight overs straight through taking 3-21 but Barrow’s bowlers struggled for rhythm at the other end and bowled too many loose deliveries.
Frank Forge took a wicket with his first ball but fellow spinner Guy Fisher was unlucky not to take any in a good spell.
Ed Holdaway’s 3-26 squeezed the middle order but the home side kept the scoreboard moving to post a total of 219-8.
In reply Barrow lost early wickets as Ellie and Ed Holdaway departed before the score had reached 14.
Kieran Owen (38) sought to rebuild the innings and batted steadily while Josh Yelland continued his run of good form playing some positive shots straight and through mid-wicket.
When Owen was dismissed with the score on 90, Bernie Forge joined Yelland in a half-century stand and Yelland soon reached his own 50.
Up with the required scoring rate, Barrow were then undone by some overly aggressive batting as Yelland was caught at long on for a well-made 58 and, despite Forge’s best attempts to stroke the ball around for ones and twos, the lower order all aimed to play ambitious shots and were caught or bowled hitting across the line.
Forge was last out for 48, leaving Barrow 26 runs short of their target and ruing what might have been.
It was a different story at Hobbs Lane were the same clubs met in a second-team fixture.
Barrow’s 236-7 was built on stylish innings from Ben Skuse (74) who found good support from skipper Mark Gracey (49) in a 118-run partnership for the third wicket.
In reply, Pucklechurch were going well at 86 without loss before Connor Jones struck (2-17) and a brilliant piece of fielding from Ben Hodges, taking a one-handed catch on the boundary from a ball which seemed destined for the fields, opened the door.
Paul Gard (4-36) and Phil Taylor (3-10) subsequently ran through the tail as Barrow won by 78 runs.
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