County Under 17 Results
Wiltshire v Dorset - Sunday 30th June - Milton Abbey School
In near perfect conditions at the idyllic Milton Abbey School, Wiltshire got their 2008 campaign off to a cracking start with a comfortable victory over division two side Dorset. With the ball swinging around in practice, the Wiltshire captain, Courtney Earl decided to bowl first, and at lunch with Dorset on 148-4 honours were around even.
Dominic Webb and Nick Harrison bowled well for Wiltshire, ably supported by Aaron Lee, Simon Beetham and Marcus Brown. The scoring rate briefly increased with the introduction spin, but after lunch both Rob Pittman and Shaun Dixon settled down and bowled more consistently, and Wiltshire did well to restrict Dorset to 238 off 55 overs.
The Wiltshire batsman could not have started better. Two new boys, Tom Newman (formally of Gloucestershire) and Chris Aubrey (Swindon C.C) opened up and put on a superb 148 opening stand. Both players were strong through the offside and punished anything loose to such an extent that Dorset looked ragged in the field. Newman was first out for a fine 74, and Chris Aubrey soon followed for 51. Rob Pittman batted sensibly for 23, but with the game getting a little tight in the last 10 overs perished playing one shot too many. It was left to Ben Upton (South Wilts) batting at 4 to steer Wiltshire home with 4 balls to spare. Upton played some superb shots to end on 43 not out, rounding off a very encouraging day for the U17 side.
The Wiltshire U17 side start their ECB County Championship Division 3 campaign on the 16th July with an away game against Oxfordshire.
