Cricket Report

Saturday XI v Bagnall

Halfway through the season and Audlem find themselves in a comfortable mid-table position in the league table after a well-earned draw against promotion chasing Bagnall in the Staffordshire Moorlands last Saturday.
After the previous weekend's poor performance, the lads put in a much-improved display in a game that was in the balance throughout most of the afternoon. Skipper Dave Blatherwick won the toss and chose to field first, Audlem's bowlers struggled to make the initial breakthrough but did keep the scoring rate in check as the first wicket partnership added 103 runs . Simon Swift was introduced into the attack and was able to extract some life out of the wicket, ending up with four of the five wickets to fall in his 9 overs for the cost of 37 runs as Bagnall were restricted to 208 for 5 off their allocation of 40 overs. Dave Parkinson was the other wicket taker. Audlem made a steady reply, keeping wickets in hand for a victory push in the latter stages of the game with Charles Birkin ( 27 ), Bertie Hardy ( 19 ) & Dave Blatherwick ( 24 ) putting in the groundwork. Bagnall's bowlers were able to keep an element of control as they maintained their discipline throughout but valuable contributions from Jake Topping ( 26 ) and Vijayan Rahul ( 18 ) plus a masterclass from Kamsani Pranay with 52 off just 41 deliveries kept the game in the balance right up until the final overs when the visitors decided to share the spoils and opt for a draw with eight wickets down and the score on 189.

Sunday XI v Liverpool Barristers CC

The following day The Sunday team welcomed Liverpool Barristers CC to The Gorse Croft. Audlem chose to bat first and made the visitors toil in the sun with Tom Measures ( 50 retired not out ), Ben Salisbury ( 55 rno ). Marcus Taylor ( 43 ) & Dave Parkinson ( 43 ) scoring the bulk of the runs in a formidable total of 234 for 4 off the 40 overs. The Barristers gave a good account of themselves keeping up with the scoring rate but eventually ran out of wickets 41 runs short of their target as they were all out for 193 in the 35th over of the reply. Ryan Anderton was the pick of the bowlers claiming 3 victims in an excellent display of bowling but was well supported by the rest of the cast with Conor, Harry, Steve ( Neale ) and Parky taking the other wickets + an excellent run out from Tom to remove the dangerous number 3 batsman.

Next weekend, the first X1 will make the short journey to near neighbors. Norton-in-Hales with the second team playing hosts to Newcastle and Hartshill at The Gorse Croft. The following day, the Sunday X1 are hosting Betley CC with all games scheduled for a 1.00pm start.