Barrow Gurney CC’s Chairman, Phil Milton, celebrated the 150th anniversary of the club with his maiden century on Saturday against Nailsea 2nds.

On June 1st, 1874, a group of local people founded the club, and a copy of the founding document is proudly displayed in the pavilion.

Exactly 150 years later the club’s celebrations were made even more special by the performance of Phil.

Having played for the club since his youth he captained the First XI for some years, and more recently played some 2nd XI games, but had never scored a century with his previous highest hit being 94.

Phill opened the batting and after a cautious start a straight six set the tone of the innings as he was particularly severe on anything full.

He was fortunate to survive a chance in the thirties when he found long off but from then on, he gave no further chances.

After reaching that milestone the runs kept flowing and the spectators began to wonder if he would make 150 on the 150th anniversary.

He went beyond even that as he hit nine sixes and 19 fours to finish on 176 not out, which is believed to be the highest ever score made for the club in its history.

A lovely cameo innings of 35 by Toby Connock, together with good contributions from Will Thompson, 31 not out, and Kieran Owen, 28, helped the score along to 328-4.

With Nailsea having suffered a couple of injuries in the field, Barrow needed to take only eight wickets to win and despite some spirited batting from several promising young players Barrow ran out comfortable winners by 249 runs.

Frank Forge took 3-11, with two wickets apiece for Dave Smith and Paul Gard.

Barrow 2s remain top of Division 9 West after only dropping one point in 5 games.

Meanwhile Barrow First XI continued their recovery from a disappointing start to the season winning their third game on the trot at Winterbourne against their A XI.

Barrow bowled the home side out for 106 with leg-spinner Guy Fisher taking 5-19.

Nick Heal also bowled well taking 2-13 off his 8 overs.

Barrow were not really troubled as they passed the total for the loss of only one wicket with Ed Holdaway finishing on 51 not out.

The First XI are now tied for second place in Division 4 of the Bristol & District League.