Our first team suffered an agonising nine run defeat to
Wedgwoods in an entertaining encounter at Bagnall Road yesterday.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl an early burst
of wickets from Mat Brazier - who finished with figures of 3-21 - and Rob Bennett - who claimed an excellent 5-64 - saw Wedgwoods reduced
to 36-5, but the visitors rallied thanks to a sixth wicket partnership of 116 and
they were eventually bowled out for 199.
John Powell helped to mop up the tail
by taking 2-30. Whilst debutant professional Zeeshan Ali claimed four catches
behind the stumps
Set 200 to win our chase didn’t get off the best of starts
as we were reduced to 77-7 but a superb 104 run partnership between Josh Jeynes
(83*) and Roger Shenton (33) put us very close to victory. Shenton’s innings
included four boundaries; while Jeynes’ knock included 13 four’s and a six.
Unfortunately the loss of the final three wickets for 10
runs denied us a famous victory. But the lads can take a lot of heart from the
battling qualities they showed into next week’s match at Crewe.
Meanwhile the second team suffered another defeat, this time
at the hands of Wedgwoods.
After losing the toss we did well to restrict the Wedgwood
innings to 177-4. Sam Timmis was the pick of the bowlers finishing with 2-54
from 16 overs. Whilst there was also some good bowling from Mark Roberts
(1-38), Mike Morley (1-14) and Daniel Gammon who bowled very well with little
reward.
Our run chase never really got going and we were all out for
65. Though there were good knocks from Timmis (26), Andy Reid (13) and Nick
Marren (11) who hit the matches only six.
So the search for the second team’s first win of the season
goes on. They return to action next week at home to Crewe.
Finally we would like to thank all of the members who helped
behind the bar last night, preparing teas as well as those who helped
with the scoring and umpiring. Thank You!
