Sunday Cricket Report

Hodnet CC . v . Audlem CC ( Sunday 18 August )

Audlem were once again invited to be the honoured guests at Hodnet s annual President s Day celebrations.

Skipper Ollie Banfield was back at the helm and continued his habit of winning the toss and electing to bat first. Regular openers. Michael Burton ( 73 ) & Bertie Hardy ( 19 ) got the team off to an excellent start with a half century opening partnership before the fall of a number of wickets. Marcus Taylor ( 28 ) & Steve Ellsmore ( 15 ) kept the scoreboard ticking over in pursuit of a competitive total with Alex Howard and skipper Banfield adding valuable runs at the end as Audlem closed their 40 overs on 202 all out. H. Freeman, M. Cowap & J. Matthews were the bowlers that did the damage for the hosts, sharing 7 of the wickets to fall between them.

Hodnet in their reply also were off to a flier with Harry Fiaz ( 54 ) & Audlem old boy Robert Mottershead ( 10 ) adding 55 for the first wicket but the introduction of star allrounder Michael Burton ( 3 overs 2 for 12 ) into the attack set back the progress. Hodnet were always up with the run rate but wickets were falling at regular intervals which was not aided by 3 run outs in the total. The introduction of mystery spinner, Alex Howard, into the attack sealed the victory claiming the final two wickets to fall without conceding a run with the hosts still 24 runs short of their target.

An excellent day was enjoyed by all the team & supporters with some of the squad returning home with some lovely prizes from the generous raffle. A lot of effort was put into the preparations for the day to make it into a great success with particular thanks due to the catering team who put on a lovely spread once again & Dave Tunks who is the heartbeat of the club and chief organiser on the day.

Audlem return home to The Gorse Croft next Sunday to take on Kidsgrove CC with a 1.00pm start time.