Dave Taylor continued with his swashbuckling approach and lead from the front from the outset. Despite losing Chris Holt (13) with the score on 35, Taylor and Amila Weththasinghe maintained a good tempo to our innings as the pair moved the score along to 94/1 by the 22nd over. Taylor reached 45 before an inspired bowling change - the introduction of Milner - clean bowled our man. Catterall fell two balls later and it was left to Matt Holt and Amila to bring some stability to our innings.

Amila continued to hit the ball to all parts without looking in any trouble at all, bringing up his half century in 34 balls, the onslaught continued until when on 99 and set for a big one he was bowled by Milner. It had been a superb knock in 64 balls which included 15 fours and 2 sixes. He and Matt Holt shared a fourth wicket partnership of 110 in under an hour to leave us 205/4 with 14 left.

Matt Holt was thriving on batting with Amila as he played probably his finest career first team innings. He looked to have all the time in the world and reached a well deserved half century in 56 balls. Holt was finally undone for 60 by his first rash shot, but with the score on 238/6 we were in a commanding position with 7 overs left. Unfortunately our tail end failed to capitalise on our position as we lost our final 4 wickets for 24 runs, being finally bowled out for 262 on the last ball. Milner was the pick of the Flowery attack with 5/67 from 14 overs. It was probably a 300+ wicket, but we would have settled for that at the start.  

In reply both Weththasinghe and Sutcliffe struck early in reply as the Flowery openers departed without scoring. Weston and Hawley added a third wicket partnership of 47 to keep the home side in the contest until Weston was caught by Catterall off Weththasinnghe for 17. Hawley continued to play positively and made good use of what was still an excellent wicket to bat on. He brought up his half century in 69 balls and with good support from Barber the pair added 71 for the fourth wicket, before he was dismissed by Sutcliffe for 60 and at half way the result was still in the balance with Flowery 130/4. Shortly after Barber (batting without a helmet) top edged the ball into his face trying to pull a quick Weththasinghe delivery. This was the end of his afternoon as he left the field for attention after a gutsy 28.

Dan Eyre hit a no nonsense 27, before Weththasinghe ran him out with a direct hit, but despite lower order contributions from Oddy (11), Milner (21) and Damien Eyre (15*), Flowery didn’t quite have the fire power down the bottom of the order to get within touching distance of their target. However, they finished on 214/7 and took a point from the game. Wethtasinghe finished with 4/78 from 19 overs and Sutcliffe 3/62 from 17.  Next weekend we take on Irlam at home on Saturday, looking to build on our current third place standing. 

Our second eleven also won last Saturday at the SCG. We batted first and made 169 thanks to decent contributions from Paul Duerden (44) and Alex Beirne (23). We then bowled out the visitors for 135, thanks to 4 wickets from the left arm spin of Paul Duerden, 3 wickets from Jehan Yahathugoda and one each from Tim Clements and Noman Ahmed. Unfortunately our third team lost to Cheetham Hill by 15 runs on Sunday. The visitors made 204 thanks to a lot of dropped catches, but in reply our young side did themselves proud making 189 in reply, with an excellent performance from twelve year old Mike Burke on debut who hit 27.

Flowery Field v Stand

Sat 5th June

Lancs County League

Stand won by

48 runs

1st innings:

Stand

Batsmen

How Out

Score

D.Taylor

b Milner

45

C.Holt

ct Harvey b Middleton

13

A.Weththasinghe

b Milner

99

S.Catterall

ct Harvey b Milner

0

M.Holt

ct D.Eyre snr b Oddy

60

I.Yahathugoda

ct D.Eyre jnr b Milner

8

C.Sutcliffe

ct D.Eyre jnr b Milner

11

G.Penchion

ct D.Eyre jnr b Oddy

1

M.Curphey

lbw b Oddy

0

J.Bond

b Oddy

13

J.Ritchie

Not Out

2

Extras

10

all out, from 50 overs

262

S.Oddy

16 - 3 - 75 - 4

G.Middleton

11 - 0 - 64 - 1

D.Eyre snr

  9 - 0 - 48 - 0

L.Milner

14 - 0 - 67 - 5

2nd Innings:

Flowery

Batsmen

How Out

Score

N.Mistry

ct Taylor b Weththasinghe

0

J.Dodd

b Sutcliffe

0

D.Weston

ct Catterall b Weththasinghe

17

M.Hawley

ct Weththasinghe b Sutcliffe

60

A.Barber

Retired Hurt

28

D.Eyre jnr

Run Out (Weththasinghe)

27

S.Oddy

ct Curphey b Sutcliffe

11

L.Milner

b Weththasinghe

21

D.Eyre snr

Not Out

15

P.Harvey

Not Out

2

Extras

33

for 7, from 50 overs

214

A.Weththasinghe

19 - 2 - 78 - 4

C.Sutcliffe

17 - 3 - 62 - 3

S.Catterall

11 - 0 - 51 - 0

J.Ritchie

  3 - 0 - 18 - 0