Crewe Audi T20 Tournament at Audlem

Bignall End were the victors on a brilliant day of entertainment at Audlem's Gorse Croft last Bank Holiday Monday.

The Club played host to a 4 team Twenty20 Tournament, which was proudly sponsored by Crewe Audi and showcased eventual winners Bignall, alongside Scot Hay, an Audlem Invitation XI and also an Audlem XI.

The format was simple enough: two semi-finals with each winner going in to a final to be played in the late afternoon.

Players arriving for the 9.30am first semi-final were greeted by the smell of Neil Humphries excellent bacon and egg sandwiches and the sight of Chris Shenton already enjoying his second Magners of the day.

Umpires Dave Slack and Leo North kindly gave up their Monday to restore some order to proceedings on the field and Tom Kural came armed with decks, a sound system and his willing, yet slightly less able assistant, Stuart Stanway. James Hindle's parents had kindly provided him with a SingStar microphone for the day and provided the commentary.

Andrew Rothwell, the Club's bar manager, worked tirelessly round the clock to ensure every customers need was catered for with a wide variety of alcoholic and soft drinks available throughout the Tournament.

The first game saw Chris Shenton's invitational XI take on the Audlem XI and they batted first, racking up 160 from their 20 overs thanks largely to a superb 80 from Jack Baston at the top of the order. He flayed the bowling to all corners of the ground and hit several Crewe Audi Maximum's with arguably the innings of the day.

In a thrilling finale Audlem's XI needed 10 from the last 3 balls with an inebriated Rothwell at the crease. A slog swept 6 brought the equation down to 4 from 2 but he could manage only a single from the remaining deliveries as Shenton's side won by 2 runs to become the first side in to the final.

The ground was beginning to fill up nicely as the second semifinal approached with the BBQ in full swing due to the sterling efforts of Anne Shepherd, who has a job for life as our official cook if she ever desires a second career.

The Crewe Audi brochures in the clubhouse had piqued the interest of several players who were already weighing up the insurance on an R8, whether or not they had seen the price was, however, still up for debate.

The second game saw Bignall End take on Scot Hay and Bignall chose to bat first, compiling a mammoth 193 which looked a tough ask on a deteriorating track. Scot Hay made a good fist of their reply but fell 50 runs short and were eliminated at the first hurdle to set up a final for Bignall with Shenton's Invitational XI.

The former Audlem captain was looking to taste victory on a ground he called home for nearly a decade before his switch to Nantwich last summer. Whilst many still view him as a traitor, he was largely well received.

Simon Swift was forced to make an early exit after he continued his city break exploits in Dublin, joining Callum Mcilveen (Eastbourne), and Toby Banfield (New York) on romantic trips away.

The final proved to be a low scoring affair which was understandable given the now heavy bags of empty bottled beer and discarded burger packaging littered around the ground.

The Audlem Invitational XI batted first and managed to reach 140 after their quick start fizzled out amongst a cluster of wickets in the closing overs. Bignall paced their reply superbly, however.

After a slow start which saw them moving along at around 5 an over, a quick-fire 50 from Rhodes put them well on track to win by 7 wickets with 3 overs remaining. Even the introduction of Shenton did nothing to stem the hemorrhaging of runs in the final few overs.

There was still a trophy to be presented: a Magnum of Veuve Clicquot Champagne and a cheque for £250,000 to the winning Captain from Bignall who we managed to grab a word with after the game.

He told us he was: "Extremely pleased and proud to win" and thanked Audlem and Crewe Audi for the Tournament which "we hope to be invited back to again next year".

There were several weary faces around as the cleanup operation began and the final few players trickled out of the ground. DJ Tom Kural made a swift exit to Manchester Airport Terminal 1 to make his set at Pacha, Ibiza, that same night.

Event organiser Richard Wilson was quoted as saying: "It's no wonder I've got no bleeding hair left lads" after a controversial incident involving Qhama Matthews and James Hindle's SingStar microphone earlier in the day.

The Club would like to thank Crewe Audi for sponsoring the day, all the teams that took part, and everyone that came to help out.

Next on the agenda is a 6 a-side tournament which is currently pencilled in for the August Bank Holiday weekend later this year. There will be more information on that in the next month.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.