Cricket report

Audlem .v. Meir Heath Saturday 17 August

Audlem were easy winners in their clash with Meir Heath on Saturday at the Gorse Croft as they recorded a 148 run victory.

The visitors were always going to be struggling against the league leaders especially as they had key players missing on the day. To compound matters for them they lost the toss and were asked to field first much to their disappointment.
Jack Allman ( 47 ) & Steve Whilde ( 35 ) made the most of the situation and formed a 79 run opening partnership before Jack departed just short of his half century. Useful contributions came from Dave Blatherwick, Irfan Shaik & Simon Swift but Dave Parkinson was again the batsman that gave the impetus to the middle order with an excellent 41.
Abijith Jayan coming in to bat at number 8 put the icing on the cake with a quickfire 27 off 18 balls to conclude proceedings as Audlem closed their innings on 223 for 8.

This was always going to be a tall order for Meir Heath but the task soon became unsurmountable as they slipped to 10 for 4, then 39 for 7. Captain, Glen Reilly brought some respectability to the score with a fine counter-attacking 41 not out but had little support as his team were shot out for 75 in the 25th over

Abijith, Vijayan Rahul & Conor Howard each claimed a brace of wickets to complete the formalities.

Next Saturday the league X1 travel to Stafford to take on the former pace setters of the division who have now relinquished the position to Audlem. With four games left to play the two promotion slots are contested between Stafford, Audlem and Leycett with the final league game of the season at Leycett likely to be a decider.

John Wainwright

Audlem Cricket Club