After last week’s performance the team was keen to do better against Urmston, who are close to us in the table and we could do with a bit of a boost after two weeks of making inroads on securing a position mid-table.

Andy won the toss and decided to bowl first. Openers Will Valentine (41) and skipper Ryan O’Brien (49) started aggressively against the new-ball pair of Adrian Lascu (8/0/65/2) and James Bell (8/0/31/1). Valentine overhit one and got himself caught by Andy Dufty off James Bell, who again bowled really well and was unlucky to only get the one wicket. Hugo Croft (73) then joined his captain and set about increasing the run-rate without taking too many risks. Their partnership for the 2nd wicket proved to be a match-defining one as 1/48/5.3 became 2/146/28.5 when O’Brien was well held by Jonny Litler. This earned Jamie Sandlands (9.3/0/59/4) his first of 4 wickets in total, once again bowling with great control, sharing the ball with Andy Dufty (10/1/44/1), Jonny Litler (9/0/37/1) and Nick Ball (4/0/40/1). Boundaries were plentiful and unfortunately we conceded 27 extras of which 22 were wides. After O’Brien departed, like last week, wickets came regularly and the next 8 wickets ‘only’ added 133 runs to the tally.

The target of 280 is well within reach and Andy will have been the happier captain at half-time. Danny Leech was back from a well-earned break but Will Valentine (10/2/37/3) seems to have his number and bowled him with his first delivery. Andy Dufty (72) found his form again but kept losing team mates at the other end. The first big partnership was with Owen Williamson (14) who helped put on 51 in 11 overs for the fifth wicket, moving the score from 44/4/10.5 to 95/5/21.6. When Ed Roberts (50) joined Andy 3 overs later, another important partnership started until Andy was smartly caught by Leighton-James Grimbaldeston, one of 4 catches by the young wicketkeeper/batsman. Ed then worked hard with Jake Forth (54) and put pressure on the fielding side in the last 20 overs. From a below par 137/7/30.4 the score went up to 217/8/40.3, when Jake was caught at long on. Unfortunately, Ed couldn’t capitalize on the half-century and was brilliantly caught by skipper O’Brien at deep mid-wicket. James Bell (7) and Jamie then tried keeping the scoreboard ticking but Jamie mis-hit a Ryan O’Brien delivery and the swirling skyer was chased and caught by Grimbaldeston, ending our fight-back on 240, 40 short of the target.

Once again a team performance with many good contributions. Let’s go one better next Saturday against Marple at Pinfold Lane. We will start at 11am as Cheshire will be playing the NCCA Trophy final at Wormsley on Sunday.