Audlem Cricket Club Match Report

Saturday (14th) vs Audley

Audlem extended their winning run to 3 matches with a comprehensive victory over a young Audley side.
Skipper Chris Shenton returned to captain the side after returning from his honeymoon. Shenton called correctly at the toss and elected to bowl first in order to take advantage of the overcast conditions. Audlem got off to a dream start when opening bowler Swift took a wicket in his first over. Things got even better when Tom Kural spectacularly ran out the other Audley opening batsman with a direct hit to leave the visitors on 8-2 inside 2 overs. Swift then added two more wickets in his next 2 overs to leave Audley with a mountain to climb on 14-4.
Despite their early setback the Audley middle order began to rebuild their innings reaching 36-4 before Sani Nair dismissed William Shenton with a juggling caught and bowled. Sani then added a 6th wicket before 16 year old James Cottrell bagged a wicket. Veteran Neil Humphries joined the party to leave Audley 71-8. However, terrific lower order hitting from Palmer (51*) Mason (11) and John Shenton (14) gave Audley hope as they managed a respectable 142 all out. Ron Paul took the wicket of Mason and Swift took the last wicket to fall to finish with figures of 4-19 from his 7 overs.

After tea, Audlem set about chasing the 143 needed for victory. Although slightly under par given the good wicket it would not be an easy task. The young Audley bowlers gave it their all bowling with good pace but they were met by a masterclass from the Audlem openers Chris Shenton and Andrew Rothwell. The pair played aggressively, putting on 92 for the first wicket.
Despite Shenton falling agonisingly short of what would have been an excellent half century (49). He had given Audlem the perfect start in chasing down the tricky target set by Audley. Ron Paul joined Rothwell at the crease and the pair scored quickly. Although Paul fell for 16. It allowed Rothwell and Kural to see the team home with more than 17 overs of the allotted 40 remaining. It was fitting that Rothwell scored the winning runs. He finished not out on 63 with Kural and the other end on 5 not out.

Andrew Rothwell deservingly took the player of the match award for the second week running, batting through the entire Audlem innings. This his 3rd 50+ score of the season. Audlem climbed up to 2nd place in the league table and into the promotion places.

Audlem make the short journey to Onneley on Saturday (21/08/21) for a 1pm start.

Simon Swift

Sunday (15th) vs Wistaston

Sunday's encounter against neighbouring Wistaston finished with a narrow victory for the Audlem team by the margin of 28 runs in a high scoring match.

Audlem were asked to bat first on a hard fast track but found themselves in a spot of bother with both openers back in the pavilion with only 7 runs on the board and the bowlers well on top at this early stage. But Usman Ghani (64 not out) and Richard Irvine (20) managed to repair the damage with a fine stand of 72 for the third wicket. With another fruitful partnership between Dave Parkinson (59 not out) and Steve Ellsmore (19) the score was taken to 156 with ten overs left . The remaining batsmen threw caution to the winds to build the score up to a par total which resulted in a flurry of wickets and runs to bring up the final tally to 233 for 9 . T.King and M.Caldwell both finished with 2 wickets for the visitors who stuck to their task and restrict the hosts to a manageable target.

A rain shower during the tea interval delayed the reply which was not welcomed by either team with the outfield now wet run scoring became more difficult for the batsmen and also the damp ball was a problem for all the bowlers. A fine opening stand between Dean Titus and M. Bourne who both reached their half centuries before retiring and gave the visitors a fine platform but the bowlers stuck to their task and managed to put the brake on the run chase . Scoring became more difficult as the light began to fade and the reintroduction of Audlem's most accurate bowler, Andy Burton (8 overs 3 maidens 2 wickets for 19 runs) back into the attack put Wistaston behind the required run rate. A late attack from visiting skipper Josh Allwood got his team close at the end but ultimately the hosts took the victory in a very enjoyable game between two well matched teams.

Next Sunday Audlem travel to Armitage to take on Trent Valley CC

John Wainwright