Audlem Sunday X1 v Wistaston Sunday X1

Audlem's cricketers returned to winning ways with a narrow three wicket victory over near neighbour's Wistaston on Sunday.

Skipper Ollie Banfield lost the toss and the team found themselves in the unfamiliar roll of fielding first. Audlem managed to keep a check on the Wistaston batting line up with their bowling attack back up to strength after last week's dearth of available options. Connor Howard and Usman Ghani bowled their full allocation of overs to record figures of 11 for 2 and 18 for 2 respectively. Richard Irvine, Bertie Hardy & Dave Parkinson were the other wicket takers with Stuart Avery ( 43 ), Will Stokes ( 43 ) & Mark Bourne ( 28 not out ) excelling with the bat for the visitors, who reached 176 from their 40 overs..

Audlem's reply got off to a steady start with opening batsmen, Usman Ghani ( 49 ) and Richard Irvine ( 17 ) adding 72 for the first wicket. Number 3 bat, ( Matthew Furber, 9 ) struck some lusty blows that on any other day would have travelled to the boundary but the overnight rain slowed up the outfield considerably. Wistaston's bowlers stuck to their task and managed to make inroads into the host's batting line up and 84 for 1 quickly subsided to 100 for 5 with Tristan King being the chief tormentor taking 3 wickets for 24 off his 8 overs. Youngsters Bertie Hardy ( 20 ) and David Cottrell (22 not out ) managed to steady the ship and gradually get the scoring rate back on track to 6 an over but when Bertie was dismissed with the score on 147 there was still plenty of work to do with the overs running out. Jake Topping strode to the crease in a belligerent mood and soon made short work of the deficit with a fine array of shots to all parts of the ground in his quickfire 28 not out to take his team over the line with two overs to spare.

Wistaston . 176 for 6 off 40 overs : Audlem . 179 for 7 off 37 overs

A special mention to the youngsters in the X1 . Bertie Hardy, David Cottrell, Jake Topping and Ruben Irvine all made major contributions to the team effort that resulted in the eventual victory.

John Wainwright

Audlem Cricket Club