Victoria vanquished as 1st XI win again

The 1st XI, sitting in third place in Division 2 of the Cheshire Cricket Alliance, avenged the opening-day defeat by fourth-place Tranmere Victoria, as they beat them at the Gorse Croft by 61 runs. Once again Qhama Matthews and Neil Humphries were the stars.

Skipper Callum McIlveen won the toss and decided to bat on what looked like a decent track. Openers Andy Rothwell and Chris Shenton started with a flourish, but after six overs both were back in the pavilion with Shenton scoring 10 and Rothwell 11. Dave Morris (6) and Paddy Leese (1) couldn't trouble to scoring much as both fell to bounce offered by the deck and Kemal Toraman smote a brace of boundaries before he was out for 8 as Audlem were reeling at 40 for 5.

Yet again Audlem's top order had failed, but Toby Banfield and Qhama Matthews once again rescued the day. Matthews especially set about Victoria's bowlers as ball after ball sailed over the rope. He eventually was trapped lbw for 83 as the pair added 118 for the sixth wicket. Banfield played a supportive innings of 28 and was out soon afterwards. For once the tail-enders didn't contribute many runs with Simon Swift (9) and McIlveen (8) the only scorers as Audlem were all out for 174.

Tranmere got their innings off to a patient start, until Mcilveen bowled Mark O'Brian for a duck. Concerns of profligacy followed as Audlem squandered several catching opportunities as Gary Francis (20) and Andrew Wood (13) took the score to 35 before Wood was bowled by Stuart Elkes. Soon afterwards Elkes snapped up Francis, but Mike Edwards played a stubborn defensive role supporting Sean Touhey (9), Blaine Hannon (15) and Eddie Byers (12). Swift dismissed the first two and Bryers became Neil Humphries' first victim. At this stage Tranmere were 104 for 6. Left-arm spinner Humphries then tore through the tail-end batsmen as Victoria capitulated on 113 all out with Edwards 30 not out. Humphries finished with 5 for 28, Swift 2 for 24 and Elkes 2 for 33.

Audlem gained 25 points and Tranmere 7. Second-place Holmes Chapel lost again and only picked up 10 points. As a result, Audlem remain in third place, but are now only 3 points behind Chapel.

On Saturday the 1st XI welcome league leaders Port Sunlight to the Gorse Croft for another crucial match which starts at 1.30 pm.

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