Audlem Cricket Club Report

Stafford . v. Audlem Saturday August 24

Audlem made light work of long-time pacesetters Stafford in a comprehensive 6 wicket victory at The Riverside.

After winning the toss and electing to bat the hosts found it hard going against Audlem's bowling attack and were not prepared to take too many risks in their pursuit of runs. Opening bat, Ali Siddiqi epitomised the safety first approach with a sedate 72 not out off 109 balls but none of his partners were able to push on as the innings limped along to 148 for 6 at the close.

Audlem's bowlers again performed magnificently as a unit with virtually no easy runs on offer and only 5 extras recorded. Although remaining wicketless, Abijith Jayan set the tone bowling his 6 overs for only 9 runs. The wicket takers were Kemal Toraman & Jack Allman who had 2 apiece with the other wickets to fall courtesy of a run out and one for Dave Parkinson.

Another half century opening stand between Jack Allman ( 39 ) & Dave Blatherwick ( 15 ) set the tone and with ever reliable Tom Measures ( 48 not out ) batting at three the stage was set for a comfortable win as the visitors romped home with 29 balls remaining and 6 wickets in hand. Audlem now lead the standings with 342 points with Stafford in second place on 325 & Leycett in third place on 302. With 21 points on offer for a win Audlem only need 24 points to secure promotion with three games left to play but have no intention of letting up at this stage with the league title in their sights.

Audlem travel to Swynnerton Park on Saturday to take on mid table Stone with a 1.00pm start time.

Audlem . v . Kidsgrove Sunday August 25

Audlem played hosts to Kidsgrove on Sunday who were led by Audlem old boy Dharmaraj Ramanathan ( Raj to us ). Skipper Jake Topping once again won the toss and elected to bat on a blustery afternoon at the Gorse Croft. Jake managed to hold the early innings together with a masterful 31 aided by Berty Hardy ( 19 ) & Marcus Taylor ( 10 ) before a mid innings collapse saw the team slump to 106 for 7 at the half way point of the innings.

A fine rear guard action led by young David Cottrell ( 30 ) who guided the tail end batsmen to a defendable 156 all out in the 38th over with Conor Howard adding 13 valuable runs in a 40 run partnership with David for the eighth wicket which was to prove decisive at the end of proceedings.

Kidsgrove were off to a flyer in the reply with big hitting A. Ajanthan dealing almost exclusively in boundaries in his knock of 41 & T. Thussikaran an equally belligerent 32. With the total reaching three figures in only the 15th over and six wickets in hand the game looked lost for the hosts but Jake s clever use of his bowling options paid dividends with Michael Burton 1 for 4 off 5 overs , David Cottrell 1 for 13 off 4. Berty Hardy 1 for 10 off 5.2, Irfan Shaik 1 for none off 1 and Jake himself 1 for 9 off 3. Earlier in the innings Conor Howard and Dave Parkinson shared 3 wickets in the frenzied opening blitz.

Kidsgrove subsided to 128 all out in the 32nd over to give Audlem a 28 run victory.

Next Sunday Audlem play hosts to Springhill CC from Wolverhampton with a 1.00pm start time