Cricket Defeats for Audlem

Lord Taverner's Event at Cholmondeley

The cricketers suffered back to back defeats for the first time this season. The Saturday X1 were well beaten by table topping Porthill Park at The Gorse Croft and the following day it was the turn of the Sunday team who suffered a narrow reverse at the hands of their old rivals from Woore.

Audlem were always on the back foot in their encounter with league leaders Porthill Park and were defeated by the margin of 8 wickets . Electing to take first knock the wicket proved to be bowler friendly and run scoring a lot more difficult than envisaged with only prolific opener Dan Butler ( 31 ) adapting to the conditions and Porthill's excellent bowling attack. The innings came to a close on 122 all out in the 37th over which was well under par on the day. Porthill had no difficulty in claiming an easy victory with only Abhijith Jayan amongst the wickets, taking 2 for 20 off his allocation of 8 overs.

Sunday's game was a far closer affair with Woore claiming the spoil in the last over with just 2 wickets in hand. Audlem again batted first on a scorching hot day and reached a competitive total of 181 all out off their overs with Luke Harding ( 38 ) , Usman Ghani ( 28 ) & Ayaz Hussain ( 47 not out ) leading the way. Young Bertie Hardy was a thorn in the side for Audlem's bowlers and his belligerent & skillful 55 proved to be a match winning knock aided and abetted by valuable contributions from Michael Burton ( 39 ), George Walker ( 32 ) & Lauren Kenvyn who hit the match winning run and finished on 25 not out. Two wickets apiece for Usman Ghani, Ayaz Hussain and Dave Parkinson were the highlight of Audlem's bowling attack.

Audlem had 3 players involved at the recent Lords Taverners event at Cholmondeley Castle which is held annually. The Lord's Taverners work across the UK and beyond to provide inclusive and impactful cricket programmes, empowering young people with disabilities and from disadvantaged communities to develop the knowledge, skills, capabilities and confidence required to overcome the challenges of inequality, raise their aspirations and reach their potential.

Regular Audlem Sunday team member and TV personality, Nick Hancock has been involved in the event since it's inception in 2005 and this year he was in charge of organizing 2 celebrity teams to play for the Mark Fearnall Memorial Trophy. With David Gower and Garry Lineker a couple of late withdrawals Nick had to make some hurried telephone calls for replacements... With my surname beginning with W and the game was due to be played the following morning I assumed Nick was well through his list of celebrities and almost all his cricket contacts so I agreed to turn out alongside my grandson Andrew Salmon.

Andrew is a nervous player of spin bowling at the best of times but found himself batting at number 4 in the order and having stride out and face Monty Panesar the ex- England spin bowler for his first delivery. He managed to survive the over and put together a decent innings complete with a couple of nice boundaries before eventually falling to Monty.

The game was an entertaining affair for the 700 or so well heeled guests who enjoyed a wonderful lunch, afternoon tea, silent auction and entertainment from comedian Josh Daniels with all the proceeds going to The Lord's Taverners Charity.

John Wainwright

Audlem Cricket Club

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