Audlem Cricket Report

Audlem have climbed to the top of the division in The North Staffs and South Cheshire League following an impressive Bank Holiday double.

Audlem's first clash of the week saw them hostModdershall and Oulton, with skipper Chris Shenton winning the toss and deciding to bat. His decision was justified as he and star performer, Jack Allman added 52 for the first wicket in even time. With the fall of three quick wickets Jack found a partner in Ben Salisbury to take the score to 88. Jack was eventually dismissed for 99 going for a straight 6 in an attempt to reach a well deserved century with the score on 137. Kemal Toraman now took centre stage to push the score to a defendable total with a fine 31 not out with the team finishing on a decent 191 for 9 off their allocation.

Moddershall soon found themselves in trouble with both openers back in the pavilion with only 13 on the board but a fine third wicket partnership put on 62 to keep the visitors in the game. Another double breakthrough put the brakes on the recovery but the middle order made a good attempt to keep up with the required run rate. The accurate bowling attack eventually proved too much and the innings came to a close on 154 all out. Vijayan Rahul was the main performer with the ball taking four wickets for just 23 runs ably supported by Abhijith Jayan, Simon Swift, Kemal Toraman, Dave Parkinson, Ron Paul and Jack Allman.

Monday's game away to Whitmore was more straight forward with a 5 wicket victory lifting Audlem to the top of the division. Whitmore briefly threatened as the the host's opening batsmen got off to a flyer but as soon as they departed the innings slowly petered out in the face of some decent bowling . Whitmore did manage to complete their overs finishing on a below par 101 for 9. This didn't pose too many problems for the visitors as the total was passed in the 24th over for the loss of 5 wickets .

For Audlem the wickets were shared by Abijith Jayan, Simon Swift and Dave Parkinson but a special mention for Jack Allman who only conceded 2 runs in his 8 overs. The main contributions from the bat came from Jack, Dave Blatherwick and Tom Measures.

The Sunday game at Burton was called off at 9.00am due to overnight rain making the outfield unsafe for play. This Saturday Audlem travel to Meir Heath whilst their Sunday counterparts host Crewe Vagrants the following day with both games scheduled for a 1.00pm start.

John Wainwright

Audlem CC