Audlem Sunday XI win close contest

Audlem Sunday X1 v Wellington CC ( Shropshire ) 13 August

After two blank Sundays Audlem's cricketers took to the field against Wellington CC who were making their first visit to The Gorse Croft.

It proved to be another tight encounter with the hosts narrowly edging an entertaining game by the slender margin of 15 runs. Audlem's total of 194 for 8 was just out of reach for their visitors who made a valiant effort to reach the target and the game was in the balance right up to the final over.

The main contributors with the bat were Dave Parkinson ( 50 retired not out ) Ollie Connell ( 16 ) Usman Ghani ( 32 ) Shiraz Hussain ( 35 ) & David Cotterill ( 10 ) which gave the hosts a competitive total at the interval.

Wellington's batsmen got off to a good start with D. Morris ( 50 retired not out ) & young Sam Kennedy(17 ) setting the pace. Usman Ghani, Audlem's prolific allrounder broke the partnership and quickly trapped the new batsman LBW in the same over. This brought another talented youngster to the wicket in Matthew Morris who stroked a delightful 38 before falling to Ollie Connell

A useful stand between Aydin Rizwan (20 ) & Oliver Mee ( 22 ) just failed to get Wellington to their target as Audlem's bowlers put a stranglehold on proceedings. The principal wicket takers were Usman Ghani ( 24 for 2 ) Dave Parkinson ( 13 for 3 ) but a special mention to David Cotterill who bowled a fine spell of 8 overs 47 for 1 when the batsmen were in full flow & young debutant, Ollie Connell ( 8 overs 27 for 1 ) whose leg spin created all kinds of problems.

A good game of cricket between two well matched teams played in fine spirit with the end result in doubt until the final over.

John Wainwright

Audlem Cricket Club