Rostherne 1st XI, pitch and weather defeated

On Saturday Audlem 2nd XI travelled to the picturesque hamlet of Rostherne (population 407) which draws upon South Manchester for its cricket team.

Aware that no team had scored more than 150 at Rostherne in the past two years, stand-in skipper Lyndon Woodcock invited the hosts to bat first on a soft, uneven pitch.

It was also soon apparent why Maritime had last year been skittled for 11 all out as the Rostherne openers battled manfully on the difficult pitch to cope with the opening attack of Rob Mottershead and Charlie Hine.

Their accuracy, combined with uneven bounce, meant 5 of the first 8 overs were maidens and it was not until the tenth over that double figures were reached. By this time Hine had trapped Pete Britton (1) LBW and in the absence of the review system he had no choice but to trudge back to the pavilion (re-opened in 2006 by Lancashire and India legend Farokh Engineer).

As the constant drone of the planes rising from nearby Manchester Airport demonstrated the benefits of living in the South of the county, opener Ian Perkins and skipper Alex Etherington began to bat impressively but got little value for their shots from the an outfield that would benefit from the grazing of a herd of sheep or a few swings from Ross Poldark's scythe.

They pushed the score to 46 before Shajait Ali, known henceforth as Ali Junior, was invited to bowl his first spell for Audlem 2nd XI. His first ball, pitching outside leg stump, was confidently left by Etherington who promptly heard the death rattle as his leg stump was shattered and departed shaking his head for 22 at 46-3.

Perkins became the third batsman who could not believe his dismissal when he pounced on Ali Jnr's only bad ball of the innings, smashing it hard over point towards the boundary. No-one had however reckoned with the fraternal support given by elder brother Sajakat (Ali Senior) who leapt skywards to clutch a blinding catch.

All these events were intently observed from the boundary by 10-year-old Shoaib (Ali Junior Junior). 47-3.

With the majority of players distracted by the huge bulk of the Emirates Airbus A380 on its way to Dubai, Lyndon Woodcock kept his concentration to defeat Ulyatt with a ball that left him unsure whether he had been bowled, stumped or caught. As it was the bail trimmer had again done the job, 60-4.

Revelling in the unlikely batting average of 115, Kieron Henry was finding the pace of Ali Junior and the guile of Woodcock a problem. Unable to get the ball away, he finally lost patience and hoiked into the safe hands of Ali Snr at wide mid-on, thereby becoming the first batsman not to be unlucky in his dismissal as his average was halved. 61-5.

Crump-Raiswell came and soon went and Henry Edwards, who had failed to lay bat on ball for two overs, eventually made contact with Woodcock's slower ball only to find that Paddy Leese is quite capable of taking catches in front of the wicket without gloves and the back of the batting was broken.

Bearing in mind the threat of impending rain Ali Junior swiftly mopped up the tail, one ball rocking back the middle stump, one snaffled by keeper North and an LBW decision that had the number 11 walking off in relief.

Ali Junior's penultimate over expensively went off the edge for three runs, two of only five scoring shots from 75 balls bowled. His final figures of 12.3 overs, 8 maidens, 6 wickets for 7 runs speak for themselves. Lyndon Woodcock finished with 3-23, Charlie Hine 1-5, Reg Farnell 0-22 and Rob Mottershead's 0-16 from 9 overs was far more effective than the figures show.

Rostherne 1st XI had been dismissed for 77, one run more than in the 2014 fixture, when Audlem had breathtakingly scraped to a one-wicket victory.

Vividly remembering the difficulties in chasing the previous year's total, Paddy Leese and Zar Ahmed set about adapting their style to the pitch and Crump-Raiswell and Ulyatt kept the new opening partnership on their toes for the first eight or nine overs.

Zar departed for 3 in the ninth over, leaving him ample time to continue with his application for the BCFA (British Cage Fighting Association) event in Ipswich on July 27th (tickets available).

Despite this being his first outing of the season, Paddy Leese showed no signs of rustiness and together with Ali Senior, like his younger brother also making his 2nd XI debut, proceeded to clatter slow bowler Henry to all parts of the field.

Victory was achieved by 9 wickets in the 22nd over, thus defeating the rain which would probably have prevented a result if the game had needed to carry on past 6 o'clock.

Skipper Danny Thorburn, having a well-earned break and celebrating his 21st birthday at Chester Races, now had even more to celebrate as his team closed to 9 points behind Stretton, despite Audlem having won one more game than their rivals.

Saturday sees the visit of Appleton 3rd XI, an opponent which has provided Audlem with more than their fair share of nightmares over the past few seasons.

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