Ed Barnard shone with bat and ball for Worcestershire Seconds on the opening day of the Second Eleven Championship match with Nottinghamshire Seconds at Notts Sports Club.
Barnard began the day at New Road but then drove north after being left out of the side for the LV = County Championship match with Hampshire.
He came to the wicket with Worcestershhre in trouble at 26-4 against an attack which includes Warwickshire's England paceman Chris Woakes who is on the comeback trail from injury.
Barnard batted through the rest of the innings for an unbeaten 90 from 142 balls with 12 fours as Worcestershire recovered to reach 234 all out in 73.3 overs.
He shared in stands of 65 for the sixth wicket with Calvin Dickinson and 45 for the ninth wicket with Darrel Williams.
Then the all-rounder quickly made inroads into the Nottinghamshire reply with the new ball.
Barnard removed three of the first four wickets inside five overs – including Woakes for a first ball duck – as Notts were reduced to 5-4.
Notts lost another wicket in the penultimate over of the day and closed on 41-5 from 18 overs with Barnard returning figures of 7-3-15-3.
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Woakes was playing for Notts in order to gain match practice due to fire at in the Oxford Parks pavilion cancelling this week’s Warwickshire match against the MCCU.
Worcestershire paceman Alex Hepburn started positively but was caught behind off Ben Kitt at the start of the sixth over.
George Rhodes had just one scoring shot when the 19th delivery he faced just flicked the bails off on the last ball of seventh over.
Worcestersire lost another two wickets and found run scoring difficult in the overcast conditions. They were 36-4 off 18 when the first rain break came after 51 minutes but the players returned for three overs before lunch for the addition of a leg bye.
Barnard and Ollie Westbury started steadily after lunch and brought up the half century but Westbury was caught at square leg the ball immediately afterwards.
This brought young wicket keeper Calvin Dickinson to the crease and he played positively from the outset. His 40 from 43 balls was matched by Barnard and they brought up the team 100 and their 50 partnership with the same boundary down to third man by Dickinson.
Their momentum was halted by another rain break which cost the day another overs and broke Dickinson’s concentration, as he was caught behind off the bowling of Simon Webster the first ball play resumed.
Will Fraine hit a six into the car park off a no ball during his 17 from 26 balls until he went the same way as Dickinson off the bowling of Ben Kitt. Barnard never looked in any trouble at the other end but ran out of partners 15 overs into the evening session.
Notts were left to bat for 18 overs in bright sunlight at the end of a showery day. There was no rest for Barnard as, despite batting for 56.3 overs, he opened the bowling with Liam Smith.
The pair bowled menacingly from the outset. Smith bowled opener Libby with his first ball and Barnard followed suit with the first ball of his second over, bowling Anuj Dal to put Notts on 2-2.
Notts had only added three more runs when Barnard struck again in his third over to remove William Root (Joe’s brother) for a duck and then Chris Woakes first ball, having both caught behind by Dickinson.
Will Gidman and Tom Moores (son of Peter Moores) staged a recovery to 37 in the 17th over when Ross Whiteley trapped Moores lbw.
Worcestershire Seconds – first innings
Hepburn c Keast b Kitt 7
Rhodes b Gidman 4
Kervezee lbw Gidman 5
Westbury c Brown b Woakes 13
Whiteley c and b Gidman 0
Barnard not out 90
Dickinson c Keast b Webster 40
Fraine c Keast b Kitt 17
Twohig c Woakes b Tilcock 19
Williams b Kitt 18
Smith c Keast b Webster 0
Extras 21
Total (all out) 234 in 73.3 overs
FOW: 7, 14, 24, 26, 52, 117, 150, 187, 232, 234
Bowling: Gidman 3-38, Kitt 3-62, Woakes 1-10, Webster 2-48, Tillcock 1-32.
Nottinghamshire – first innings
Dal b Barnard 1
Libby b Smith 1
Root c Dickinson b Barnard 0
Gidman not out 14
Woakes c Dickinson b Barnard 0
Moores lbw Whiteley 16
Tilcock not out 0
Extras 9
Total (for 5 wickets) 41 in 18 overs
FOW: 2, 2, 5, 5, 37
Bowling
Barnard 7-3-15-3
Smith 4-1-9-1
Hepburn 4-2-7-0
Whiteley 2-1-1-1
Rhodes 1-1-0-0
