Audlem Cricket Report

An excellent weekend for Audlem's cricketers as all three teams recorded victories..

The first X1 had an exciting run chase after being asked to bowl first on losing the toss to a strong Porthill Park team who were second in the division at the start of the day. Porthill's batsmen made the most of the conditions by piling on the runs on a scorching hot day and a lightning fast outfield with opening batsman, Lucas Turner batting through the innings to record an undefeated 101 in the final total of 215 for 3. Audlem's bowlers stuck to their task and kept the score manageable with a wicket apiece from Jake Topping and Simon Swift ( the other being courtesy of a run out ). Audlem's reply got off to a fine start with a 66 first wicket stand between Venu ( 47 ) and Charles Birkin ( 58 ) followed by a second wicket partnership between Charles and Bertie Hardy ( 25 ) of 45. Charles almost carried his bat but was dismissed with just two runs required for victory with valuable contributions coming from Pranay ( 38 ) and Dave B ( 18 ) as Audlem crossed the line with five wickets in hand and 3 balls to spare.

Audlem seconds had an equally entertaining game at home to Caverswall who sat at the top of the division prior to the game. Being short of a number of regular players the hosts won the toss and had no hesitation in putting the visitors in to bat. This tactic paid instant dividends as Audlem's bowlers took control of the game from the start and kept a tight reign on proceedings throughout in taking wickets at regular intervals and stemming the flow of runs as Caverswall's innings subsided to 84 all out in only the 25th over.

The wickets were shared between Sanimon Nair ( 2 ), Anapala Uma ( 2 ), Sam Patterson ( 2 ) and Ron Paul ( 3 ). Audlem did lose 5 wickets in the reply to some excellent bowling from the visitors but always had the situation under control as they scored the winning runs in the 29th over of the reply. Dave Parkinson ( 16 not out ), Hamish Howard ( 21 ) & Sanimon ( 29 ) were the main contributors with the bat.

Sunday's game at The Gorse Croft was another entertaining affair with Burton CC from Chester providing the opposition. Audlem were again short of regulars but still had enough in reserve to claim victory in a tight contest. Audlem dismissed their opponents in the 39th over for 142 and won the game with seven wickets down in the 36th over. Audlem's experinced trio of bowlers , Dave Quinton , Richard Irvine and Dave Parkinson gave the opposing batsmen little but the undoubted stars of the show were the juniors in the team with Ryan Anderton claiming 2 for 24 off his 8 overs, Frazer Pass { 1 for 20 ) Billy Baker 0 for 12 off 3 overs with the catch of the season and running out Burton's best batsman but special mention to Jemima Reynolds who claimed 3 for 19 off 5.1 overs in a fine spell of seam bowling. The juniors again took centre stage as Audlem replied with the bat. Jemima was there at the end to stroke the winning runs in a fine innings of 15 not out with Frazer scoring a fluent 18 opening the batting but Billy Bakers 32 was a match winning innings to complete a fine all round game for him. Great contributions from Richard ( 29 not out ) and Steve Ellsmore ( 29 ) were also key elements in the victory.

Next Saturday Audlem 1st X1 are at home to Audley whilst the second team have no fixture. The following day the Sunday X1 play hosts to Lichfield Nomads with both games scheduled for a 1.00pm start.

The club would like to register their thanks to Nantwich Round Table for their very generous donation of £200.00 for the purchase of new match balls which are required in all league games.