Last Saturday afternoon we entertained local rivals Prestwich at the SCG, with the visitors looking for revenge after their opening day defeat to us at Hey's Road.

Having lost the toss we were asked to bat first and as in recent weeks we struggled early on to build sizeable partnerships, as Prestwich's opening bowler Phil Kyle won the early exchanges. We found ourselves in a less than ideal position of 70/6, however professional Amila Weththasinghe was still at the crease. Amila reached his half century from 68 balls, but with wickets continuing to fall at the other end, he tried to force the issue and was well caught by Lewis Johnston on the long off boundary for 65. At 112/8 Matt Holt and Jack Bond came together and managed to add a 29 run partnership, before Gary Bond joined Jack and the pair played well together taking the score to 158, before a run out ended our innings with 7 overs remaining. Jack Bond second top scored with 20 off the bat and we also picked up 30 extras. 

Prestwich in reply made a steady start and despite losing Johnston early on, they reached 54/1. We picked up two quick wickets to restrict the visitors to 55/3, with Chris Thomas (24) and Sam Holden (19) back in the shed as Catterall and Sutcliffe bowled economically and kept a lid on the Prestwich charge. However, a fourth wicket stand of 51 between the experienced Steve Orrell and youngster James Wharmby, swung the contest back in Prestwich's favour. We picked up two further wickets as Sutcliffe removed Orrell for 15 and Weththasinghe dismissed Holt for 19, both well caught by Gary Bond on the boundary. Unfortunately the visitors had plenty of overs in hand and thanks to a really well played unbeaten 43 from Wharmby and 17 from Ste Lorenzini, Prestwich reached their target in the 53rd over for the loss of 5 wickets. Sutcliffe picked up 2/52 from 19 overs and as always failed to give up and Catterall picked up a more than respectable 1/23 from 10 overs. But again batting frailties cost us dear.

Next weekend we travel to Cheetham Hill on Saturday with the third team at home to Flowery Field on Sunday.