1st XI march on in Styal

The 1st XI travelled to Styal on Saturday and came away with a comfortable 71 run victory to keep up their challenge for promotion from Division 2 of the Cheshire Cricket Alliance.

Skipper Rich Wilson won the toss and chose to bat on a green tinged surface. Audlem got off to a poor start and were 18 for 2 with openers Chris Shenton (11) and Andy Rothwell (6) both being dismissed in the opening overs. This brought Stu Stanway and Wilson to the crease who set about rebuilding the innings in testing conditions. They had moved the score to 83 when Wilson was bowled as he looked to accelerate.

Tom Kural joined Stanway, and together they began to take the game away from Styal with some aggressive running and expansive stroke play. Stanway made Styal pay for their dropped catches as he reached his 50. When Kural was caught for a brisk 27 the score had risen to 127 for 4.

Qhama Matthews and Stanway continued to press on but, with the score on 193, Stanway was bowled just four runs short of his century. Neil Humphries (1 not out) and Matthews (22) added a further six runs before Wilson declared with the scoreboard showing 199 for 5.

Styal had 46 overs to chase and breezed serenely to 46 thanks to several huge sixes by Imran Yousef. Callum McIlveen got the all important breakthrough with Rik Harrison caught behind and Humphries took two quick wickets to leave the home side 80 for 3 with 25 overs remaining.

A change of ends for Simon Swift proved key as he ripped the heart out of the hosts middle order with some hostile bowling which yielded 4 crucial wickets including the vital one of Yousef who was caught in the gully by Wilson for 62.

Styal were determined to go down fighting but despite some lusty blows they were eventually all out for 128. Humphries claimed the last wicket to finish with 3 for 54 while Swift claimed 4 for 44.

Styal gained 5 points and Audlem 25 to sit in third place, just one point behind Westminster Park whom they play at home this Saturday. Tranmere Victoria lead the division by 43 points, but the gap between Westminster Park and sixth place Knutsford is just 11 points.

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