Appleton crumble

The 2nd XI travelled to Warrington to play Appleton 3rd XI and recorded a comfortable seven-wicket victory last Saturday. The win avenged a thrashing delivered by the same opponents earlier in the season.

Audlem won the toss and skipper Danny Thorburn elected to bowl first on a cloudy day which was interrupted by the odd spell of warm sunshine. The wily opening bowlers, Dave Parry and Roy Wild, immediately settled into a nagging line and length. So much so that no runs were scored off the first six overs!

The wicket was damp and spongy and proving very difficult to bat on. The openers were soon dismissed and Appleton were struggling. The stranglehold applied by the Audlem duo was never released and the incoming batsmen fared no better.

The fact that Appleton reached a fairly respectable total considering the wicket, was down to the efforts of the Paul and Steve Dempster and Matthew Swannell. They all provided some useful cameo performances which allowed Appleton to reach 123 all out.

The star bowler for Audlem was Lyndon Woodcock who took 4 for 29 off 8 overs. However, major credit should also go to Parry who bowled throughout the innings and finished with 2 for 49 off 24 overs. Roy Wild was also admirable, with figures of 2 for 37 off 16 overs.

In reply, chasing 124 to win, Audlem quickly lost their openers, Thorburn and Zar Ahmed. However, this brought Tom Kural to the wicket to join Toby Banfield. Kural immediately went on the attack and played by far the most fluent innings of the day. He made some magnificent shots all around the wicket and ended up 64 not out. It was a match-winning performance on a difficult wicket. He was ably supported by Banfield who scored 25 before departing. This allowed Rob Chadwick to come in and score the winning runs in magnificent style with a six.

Audlem gained 20 points and Appleton 6. As a result of the win Audlem moved up one place to fifth in Division 4. Ironically, they welcome Glazebury to the Gorse Croft on Saturday for a 1.30 pm start, with whom they swapped places by just a single point.

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