2nd XI rolled over by Appleton

After last week's heroics, the 2nd XI were brought back down to earth with a jolt as the came away from mid-table Appleton 3rds suffering a comprehensive defeat by 7 wickets.

Skipper John Wainwright, with a very rare correct call on the toss of the coin, made the decision to bat on a glorious summer day (much to the relief of his team mates) but soon found that the home bowlers knew how to exploit the wicket.  This gave good encouragement to their seam attack. Only opening batsman Steve Broomfield adjusted to the conditions and fine bowling by John Ormson and Matthew Swanell. All the batsmen decided to take a cautious approach and try and post a defendable total and bat out the full allocation of overs. The innings closed with Audlem reaching 126 for 8.  Steve Broomfield scored 39 and Dave Parry was 28 not out.

On resumption after the tea interval the wicket appeared to have made a miraculous transformation into a batting paradise.  The home batsmen rarely looked in any form of trouble and scored runs at will. Only 'Old Faithful' Roy Wild was able to contain the belligerent approach and finished with commendable figures of 13 overs 1 wicket for 42 runs. Appleton only lost 3 wickets in their successful run chase and gained the maximum 25 points for their efforts.

Audlem’s much under par performance only gained 8 points.  This now puts them back into tenth place in Division 4, just 10 points above the relegation zone.  However, the bottom of the division is so tight that Audlem are only 10 points below sixth place.

On Saturday Audlem entertain sixth-place Rylands at Gorse Croft and will have to turn in a much improved performance to increase their haul of points to obtain their aim of league safety.  The match starts at 2.00 pm.

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