Audlem Fall Short In Thrilling Finish

Audlem 1sts lost by 2 runs on Saturday in a dramatic finish at Bowdon Vale with just 8 balls left in the Radwood Developments sponsored Cheshire Alliance Division 2 encounter.

The Badgers were without their Captain Stuart Stanway due to netball commitments which meant his vice Callum Mcilveen assumed the role of skipper for the afternoon. He drafted in ex-Yorkshire scholar Tom Stafford, who made his first class debut for the club, and Chairman Paul Thorburn.

The journey passed with far less incident than the corresponding fixture last year and Mcilveen got one over on Stanway early on by winning a toss and choosing to insert Bowdon on a soft pitch and sopping outfield that required armbands in one corner.

The home side made a solid start until Ollier was dismissed by Audlem's captain for 11 with the score at 20. This brought Nomaan Hasan to the wicket who single handedly flayed the visitors to all parts of the ground on his way to an excellent 81.

He smashed Humphries out of the attack with several maximums and collected 5 sixes in total as Bowdon crashed their way to a challenging total. Hasan received support along the way from Johnson (15) and Molloy (23) as Audlem haemorrhaged runs during the middle overs.

The excess water made fielding unpleasant and Pob suffered from two early slips in the outfield, the second of which nearly ended in a knee brace.

That Audlem were able to keep the score under 175 was largely thanks to an excellent hat-trick from birthday boy Simon Swift as the home side went from 128-4 to 128-7 in the space of 3 balls. He took a caught and bowled and claimed 2 LBW's on his way to 5-49 in his best figures of the season so far. Mcilveen returned 4-34 as the home side were eventually all out for 167 in 40 overs.

Andy Rothwell started in typically circumspect fashion and naturally wasted no time in launching Molloy back over his head for 6 in the first over of Audlem's reply. He and Pob (4) were both out caught in quick succession though with the score at 23-2, and that quickly became 30-3 when Matthews was bowled for 5.

Wilson made a fluent 32 but he fell to an excellent catch in the gully and although the required rate was not really an issue, the constant stream of wickets was quickly becoming a large one. Stafford bruised his way to a quick 19 with a series of lusty blows before he was stumped and Mcilveen could only make 3 as the game began to turn in Bowdon's favour.

Unfazed at the other end, and displaying a maturity beyond his years, was youngster Ronnie Farnell, who only turned 16 a few weeks ago. Solid in defence and quick to punish anything on his pads he demonstrated his huge potential cooly nudging Audlem towards their target.

Mcilveen's men needed 57 from the last 17 overs with four wickets remaining and plenty of batting still to come. Favourites, but only just.

Farnell was rapidly running out of partners and the dismissals of Banfield (9) and Humphries (1) left the match on a knife edge at 133-8. A crucial mini-partnership of 21 looked to have put Audlem on the brink and a pulled six from Swift was greeted by huge cheers from the Audlem dressing room as the crowd began to swell with the daylight fading and balls running out.

More drama was yet to come though, an unbelievable direct hit from short fine leg saw Swift run out with 14 still required and the tension mounting.

This brought Paul Thornburn to the wicket. Used to plying his trade in the 2nd's middle order, he would have to draw on all his experience if Audlem were to win. No pressure then, PT. What followed next was pure torture.

I'm not sure the word 'scenes' has ever been more appropriate; running a brisk two with the ball arrowing towards the 'keeper, Audlem's Chairman dived full length to make his ground with bat and pads flying in all directions. One observer described it as 'poetry in motion', and Thorburn now had the friction burns to match.

Farnell crunched another 4 as he moved to 46* and a missed run out chance followed as confusion reigned and tempers threatened to spill over. Now in to the penultimate over Audlem were in touching distance. Alas, it wasn't to be, Thorburn was yorked for 5 by Mohammed with his side still an agonising two runs short of Bowdon's total. It was a thrilling finale to an an excellent game of cricket.

After the game we spoke to stand in skipper Mcilveen who said: "Obviously we are all gutted after getting so close but Bowden fielded much better than us. I thought young Ronnie was absolutely outstanding, though, and he didn't deserve to be on the losing team. We were probably a couple of batsmen light, but having said that, I still think there was enough quality in that side to win today."

Audlem are without a league game next Saturday but face Hartford away in the cup on Sunday. Players with partners are advised to get their permission slips in as soon as possible.

Following an unsavoury incident along West Street on Saturday night Pob received an ASBO (anti-social boking order) and had his Westside Taxi membership terminated with immediate effect. Simon Swift was spotted smashing an extra cheeky Nando's on Sunday night to celebrate his hat-trick and former Audlem Captain Chris Shenton was spotted at pay-day loan giants Wonga on Sunday morning after an all-day session in The Leopard seriously escalated.

Qhama 'crisp packet hands' Matthews is yet to rule out a deal with IPL giants Delhi Daredevils after taking 3-19 in Thursday night's victory over Audley in the Phoenix League.

See you all next week.

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