Stirling Gives Glous a Pounding after failure to Kling on

Rogers and Out gives a detailed report on our victory where Stirlo makes the difference. We hear of comical fielding and features of new Brightside ground. For non cricket fans you can read about some art in morning and R @ O being a diferrent kind of artist at the  end of the day.   

In a remarkable about turn of fortunes from yesterday's woes at Radlett, Middlesex recorded an excellent seven wicket victory over last season's champions in the Royal London Cup. Whilst Gloucestershire's 254/8 from 50 overs looked somewhat light despite a fine century partnership between Gareth Roderick and Hamish Marshall, our revised target of 208 in 35 overs looked like a walk in the park due to the heroics of Paul Stirling, helped earlier by the bowling of Toby Roland-Jones and the excellence of Ollie Rayner in the field.

My journey to Bristol had been good with a pretty much an empty carriage on the Torbay Express, ultimately bound for Paignton. Bristol is a city that I'm not over familiar with, despite several visits to Nevil Road and a trip in 1980 to Eastville to see a 3-0 drubbing for Chelsea from the Black Arabs, in a game most notable for police horses on the terraces.

I spent a pleasant hour in the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, browsing some fine art of many varieties on the second floor. For the art fans amongst you, the pre-Raphaelite, Impressionist and Modern sections are worth seeing.

It was a two mile walk from the museum to the ground and I arrived to find that we'd won the toss and elected to field. As widely reported, Adam Voges came in for Brendon McCullum and Ollie Rayner replaced Ravi Patel.

Tom Helm opened the bowling for us from the Ashley Down Road end and there was a big appeal to have Michael Klinger caught behind off the penultimate ball of the over, but it was turned down. However our luck was to change very soon, with Toby eliciting a false stroke from Chris Dent, and Gubbo took a comfortable catch in the covers.

Klinger and new batsman Roderick sought to repair the damage and hit some decent shots to the boundary. But just when he was looking quite fluent, the Corporal edged TR-J to Ollie at slip and Gloucester were 36/2 in the eighth over.

We should have taken another wicket in the next over, but Eoin Morgan shelled a routine catch at point to reprieve Roderick off the unfortunate Helm. This was looking like a costly error as Roderick and Hamish Marshall kept the score ticking over, despite some very tidy bowling by Toby, who delivered seven straight overs in a very economical fashion.

Indeed, as the partnership grew, I was anticipating a headline of 'Woderick Wampage'
from our pun loving web master. The one hundred stand came up in the 27th over, but two overs later, Roderick contrived to top edge Tom Helm to Franco at mid off and our hosts were now 150/3.

The 35th over was to be pivotal as two crucial wickets fell. Firstly the dangerous Cockbain was run out by Ollie and then our favourite German snaffled Marshall at mid wicket for 74 off Ro-Jo's bowling. Gloucester were now 183/5 and their hopes of making 300 looking quite distant.

Benny Howell was next man in for Gloucester after his good performance in the T20 last week at MTS. Despite hitting a straight six off Ollie to bring up the two hundred, he slapped James Fuller to Ollie at mid wicket and our hosts were 207/6 in the 41st over. Seeing Tom Smith come in at number eight led me to believe that Gloucestershire's tail was somewhat long and so it proved as they only managed another forty odd runs in the remaining nine overs, despite some of their over-optimistic fans thinking they'd make 275 in the final overs.

For those of you that have not been to Nevil Road (now known as the Brightside ground) recently, it has undergone a big transformation including the installation of floodlights. There is also a splendid facility under the flats at the Ashley Down Road end where drinks can be purchased at a members' discount which includes away members (Hampshire please take note). You have to pay a £1 deposit for your drinking vessel which is refundable when you've finished.

When we were about to start our innings, it had started to rain and it seemed likely a curtailed match would take place. We did start on time, with Stirlo getting us up and running by clipping Norwell to fine leg for a single then Dawid Malan straight drove the same bowler for four. Stirlo was not initially looking in great touch and he had a big let off when Klinger put down a chance at second slip off Norwell in the third over. This was to prove extremely costly.

The rain got heavier and the players came off in the seventh over with us on 17/0 which was apparently four runs over the Duckworth Lewis target. After a delay of just over an hour, we were set a target of 208 from 35 overs.

Not so Brightside
The first ball on resumption saw a misfield gift Stirlo a single and we never looked back. Mala imperiously pulled Norwell for a boundary and Stirlo got his eye in, pulling Howell into the seats for a maximum. Dent was doing well in the field, but bowlers Howell and Miles less so, with Stirlo taking a liking to both and registering his half century in the 13th over.

With the score on 84, AC miscued Miles to Dent at mid off. Nick Gubbins came in at three and soon had our one hundred up, straight driving the profligate Miles for four.

Stirlo was scoring all around the wicket and the fifty partnership between him and Gubbo came up in the 21st over. Miles' day got worse as he dropped Gubbo on the fine leg boundary then fumbled the ball over the ropes. To add insult to injury, young Nick repeated the shot for six runs without the assistance of the hapless Miles.

Gubbins eventually perished when he lofted Taylor to Kieran Noema-Barnett at a deepish mid off. He was out for 37, but we were well in control at 156/2 in the 24th over. Eoin Morgan was next man in and he let his fellow Irishman continue the good work, although his square cut for four to get off the mark was a joy to behold.

Victory was pretty much in the bag, even for us, but would Stirlo make a thoroughly well deserved century ? The answer was 'yes' as he cut Noema-Barnett to third man to bring up three figures.

Morgan didn't last too long, giving Noema-Barnett a well deserved wicket but there was no denying us and it was apt that Stirling hit the winning runs, a thumping square cut to leave us victors by seven wickets with 21 balls to spare. His unbeaten 125 runs had been a joy to behold and has kick started our 50 over campaign.

In an act of magnanimity, I decided not to collect my £1 deposit for my drinking cup and hot-footed it to a Bohemian establishment called the Bell, where Butcombe Ales were available. I told the friendly barman that it was the first time Middlesex had beaten Gloucester at Nevil Road in limited overs cricket in the reign of Queen Elizabeth (probably not too far from the truth). His sporting tale of woe was that he was a Tottenham supporter from Leicester. He asked if the Middle were likely to go on to success after our fine victory, and I gave him a definite maybe.