LYDNEY cricketers face a tough and testing August as they bid to shake off a couple of shock defeats and go for promotion over the next seven weeks.
Riding high in the Gloucestershire and Wiltshire League, Lydney occupy fourth place behind Devizes, Gloucester City and Bredon. There are two promotion spots up for grabs.
"We could do it but it will be a tight squeeze. There have been some surprise results but I think we could make it if we are successful in our seven remaining games," said club official and spinner Andy Kear.
And over the coming weeks he is sure to be having some interesting cricket chat over breakfast with his son Jonny.
The 18 year-old has been is superlative form at the top of the batting order. In all he has scored close to 900 runs this season with three unbeaten tons to his name.
Jonny produced a mature and well paced innings and was unbeaten on 105 in Lydney's excellent win against Hinton Charterhouse on Saturday.
He enjoyed a partnership of 106 with Tim Stone who hit 41 with Nigel Hutton contributing a very swift 26 as Lydney scored 225 for four.
There was a rapid response from Hinton Charterhouse who opened at a scoring rate of six an over before being pegged back by spinners Neil James and Andy Kear. The visitors responded late in the game but were faced with too big a total and ended on 207 for eight.
Mark Buckley, Nigel Hutton and Andy Kear took two wickets each.
Skippered this year by Adrian Knox, Lydney's team is a good balance of experienced and youthful players.
While the form of Jonny Kear has been outstanding, another young opener, Wayne Whitson, has also done well especially as he has the additional responsibility of keeping wicket.
Allrounders Nigel Hutton and Mark Buckley have also contributed to an excellent team performance while spin twins Andy Kear and Neil James have accounted for over 40 wickets between them.
The pace bowling of Paul Morris has also been important, though he has missed recent games because of holidays.