Audlem Cricket Club Report

A fine weekend was had by both Audlem teams with the Saturday League X1 returning home from Endon with maximum points after inflicting a heavy defeat on their hosts by the huge margin of 9 wickets whilst their Sunday counterparts didn't have things all their own way in a tight encounter at The Gorse Croft against their visitors from Trent Valley CC but eventually came out on top by the margin of 31 runs in a high scoring encounter.

The League team were again without some of their esteemed regulars but had no need to worry as the hosts were soon on the back foot against Audlem's strong bowling attack and soon found themselves in a spot of bother after slipping to 15 for 4 . Number 6 batsman, Alex Bailey decided to take the attack to the visitors with a little cameo of an innings hitting 31 off just 37 balls but on his demise the proceedings soon came to a halt with the hosts losing their last five wickets for just one run to finish on a well under par 56 all out in the 29th over. All five Audlem bowlers were amongst the wickets and bowled a superb line and length throughout the innings. Audlem's openers, Dan Butler and Andy Rothwell had little difficulty in getting the job done although Dan was dismissed with the scores level to give Endon their sole success on the day.

The Sunday game was a more competitive affair with Audlem finding themselves in a spot of bother at 38 for 6 after electing to bat first. The home team's strong middle order once again came to the rescue with a fine partnership between Usman Ghani (50 )& Adeel Mahmood ( 94 ) with Dave Parkinson chipping in with a valuable 29 to take the score to a formidable 236 all out in the final over. Trent Valley were always in the game and up with the run rate and with the belligerent Ben Beck ( 60 ) at the wicket were in with a good chance of victory but the introduction of spin bowlers Usman Ghani and Dave Parkinson on a wearing track soon put a stop to any notion of an away win as they took vital wickets and slowed the scoring rate leaving the later order batsmen with an impossible task. They eventually closed their innings on 200 for 9 to give the hosts a well earned victory. Usman capped a fine individual performance on the day with bowling figures of 7 overs 16 runs for 5 wickets

The full scorecards for both games can be viewed on audlem.play-cricket.com along with all future fixtures.

John Wainwright

Audlem Cricket Club