Cricket Report

Moddershall & Oulton . v. Audlem ( Saturday 10 August )

Audlem made their way to the delightful Wrekin View ground that is the home of Moddershall & Oulton on Saturday in an attempt to gain the points on offer in their bid for promotion whilst the hosts were fighting a battle at the other end of the table.

Skipper, Chris Shenton who was back from injury won the toss and promptly decided to bat. Audlem's prodigious opener Jack Allman again found himself with a new partner in Vijayan Rahul and soon started to put the runs on the board at a decent rate. Vijayan eventually fell for a well made 34 in a 72 run first wicket partnership. Dave Blatherwick ( 19 ) & Dave Parkinson ( 13 ) helped Jack move the score along in valuable partnerships but with him closing in on another ton he holed out for 97 but by that time the score had progressed to 180 which gave the later batsmen free reign to make the mo0st of the remaining overs.

Abhijith Jayan made the most of this opportunity with 17 not out off 10 balls as the visitors closed their 40 over score on a challenging 211 for 7.

Audlem's strong bowling attack kept the reply in check with the batsmen struggling to make any headway and with wickets falling at regular intervals as Moddershall failed to make any meaningful challenge to the daunting target. The wickets were shared between Abhijith ( 1 for 30 ), Jack ( 2 for 30 ), Vijayan ( 2 for 19 ), Conor Howard ( 2 for 21 ) & Dave Parkinson ( 3 for 12 ) but a special mention to Ron Paul who bowled beautifully without reward on the day.

The stand out performer for Moddershall was Mohammed Younis who batted through the innings for an unbeaten 60 off 85 balls as the hosts closed on 135 all out in the 34th over to give Audlem victory by 76 runs.

This result leaves Audlem top of the division with 5 games to play with 300 points ( 21 point for a win ), Leycett are second on 272 points whilst Stafford are now third as they didn t play due to a county match taking place on their ground. Stafford have the advantage as they now have 2 games in hand and stand on 266 points but with the top three teams still to play each other an exciting end to mthe season is in prospect.

Audlem . v. Wistaston ( Sunday 11 August )
With regular skipper Ollie Banfield and deputy Jake Topping both again away on holiday Conor Howard once again took the reigns after his success at Wellington the previous Sunday.

A 35 over game was agreed upon at the request to the visiting captain and with Audlem winning the toss electing to bat first on a hot afternoon at the Gorse Croft. Audlem's normally reliable early batsmen didn't get going on this occasion mainly due to some fine bowling from Father and daughter combination of Anna and Mark Bourne who finished with 3 for 27 and 2 for 17 respectively.

With the score on 89 for 6 and only 13 overs remaining it was left to K. Guzpal ( 27 ) and young David Cottrell ( 43 ) who was making his first appearance of the season to add 77 valuable runs for the 7th wicket as the hosts closed on 168 for 8.

Wistaston made good use of a flat wicket with A. Whitehurst ( 51 retired not out ) and H. Springthorne ( 39 ) setting the tone. Audlem kept plugging away but with the visitors now having wickets in hand the batsmen took charge of proceedings with C.Smith & P.Neilson finishing unbeaten on 35 and 31 respectively to bring their team home with 5 deliveries remaining with 8 wickets in hand.

Conor Howard and Dave Parkinson were the wicket takers for Audlem.

Next Saturday

Next Saturday Audlem play hosts to Meir Heath whilst their Sunday counterparts make the journey over the county boundary into Shropshire to take on Hodnet. Both games have a 1.00pm start .

Next Sunday

The Sunday fixture is Hodnet & Peplow s President s Day where once again Audlem have been given the honour of being invited as guest opposition for the game. The match usually attracts a good crowd of spectators with a bar + refreshments on offer and a raffle with some excellent prizes to be won. Details of the day can be found on Hodnet & Peplow s Facebook Page.

John Wainwright

Audlem Cricket Club