Home Losses for Audlem Cricket

Audlem Cricket Club in Training

Audlem suffered back to back home losses for the first time this season after recording defeats against Sandbach ( Saturday) and Poppyfields from the West Midlands on Sunday.

Both games took on a familiar pattern with the home captain winning the toss and electing to bat.

On Saturday Audlem's batsmen came up against a good Sandbach bowling attack and despite five batsmen making scores of 20 plus no-one was able to progress and post a match winning score. Lawrence Bowyer was the chief destroyer bowling his 8 overs and finishing with fine figures of 6 for 39 to help restrict the hosts to 156 for 9 off their allotted overs.

That is normally a well below par score at the Gorse Croft but with the wicket playing displaying a few demons Audlem's bowlers were full of hope on resumption of play after the tea interval. With the visitors losing their first three wickets with only 5 runs on the board it looked like 'game on' but once the new ball lost it's shine batting became much easier with number 5 batsman Paul Jackson managing to play the anchor role and inch his way to 69 not out off 123 deliveries to earn the visitors a deserved victory with two overs remaining and 4 wickets in hand.

Sunday's encounter was much more like the fare normally witnessed at The Gorse Croft with plenty of runs on the scoreboard for both teams.. Audlem's top scorer was again the prolific Matthew Kenvyn with a belligerent 88 with fine contributions coming from Michael Burton ( 39 ), Dave Parkinson (28 ) & Usman Ghani ( 49 ) to finish on 240 for 7 off 40 overs. With a run a ball required the visitors needed a batsman to bat through the bulk of the overs and found him in the form of opener J. Brotherton who displayed great concentration and resolve throughout his career best innings of 119 to take his team to victory with one over remaining of the allotted 40. Andy Burton was the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 26 off his 8 overs.

Full details of the scorecards can be viewed on the club's play-cricket site along with all the season's fixtures.

This weekend Audlem have two more home games. On Saturday they play hosts to table topping Betley and on Sunday welcome the visitors from Trent Valley ( Rugeley ) with both games scheduled for a 1:00 pm start.

John Wainwright ( Audlem Cricket Club )