Venturers win Universities T20 tournament

University of Bath Venturers Cricket Club - the University’s staff and postgraduate side - made it four titles in a row on Sunday in the annual quadrangular Universities Twenty20 cricket competition held at the University of Bristol’s Coombe Dingle sport facilities.

The tournament was first organised twelve years ago and is now an annual event. It features staff and postgraduate cricket sides from the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and UWE. This year, as in the two previous years, Bath won all three of their games, and have now won the last thirteen games they have played in the tournament.

This year, the Venturers opened with a 41-run win over Cardiff, thanks to some tight slow bowling from Gregory Sankaran and Sanket Kane, to restrict Cardiff to 89-7, chasing 130 runs to win. In the second match, against Bristol Venturers (UWE), Bristol Venturers set a challenging target of 136 despite a fine opening spell of 1-8 off four overs from Akhil Kamath. Strong batting from John Clark, Matt Roberts and Chris Smith saw Bath make the total with 4 balls to spare.

In the final match of the day, restricted to 16 overs due to the fading light, the Venturers needed to beat a strong Bristol Academicals side to be sure of returning with the trophy. Batting first, John Clark put on an explosive display, racing to 124 n.o. (following an unbeaten 73 in the first match of the day) to set a challenging target of 160. Bristol’s openers played some big shots, but wickets fell, and Bristol could only get to 101-6 at the end of their 16 overs.

Full match reports for all three games will appear in due course on the Club website.

The Venturers Cricket Club is a friendly, recreational cricket club which normally plays friendly 20 and 40 over matches during the summer months, and is based at the Sulis Club close to campus. Club members include MSc and PhD students, as well as mmebers of staff, and enthusiastic new members of any ability are always welcome.