Cricket Report

A good weekend's cricket for both Audlem's teams resulted in a relatively comfortable victory for the Saturday X1 followed by a narrow defeat for the Sunday team at Wistaston.

The Sunday lads had the best of the weather conditions with a pleasant sunny but blustery afternoon. In contrast to the previous Sunday a surfeit of players were available ( possibly the prospect of sampling the delights of one of Liz Bedson's cricket teas ) so were able to select a strong X1 but on arrival at the Brittles Sports Ground in Wistaston it soon became apparent that the home team had a good quality team out as well.

After electing to bat first the hosts made good progress throughout their innings with M. Batty and P. Wilkes retiring on making half centuries to finish on 205 for 5 off their 40 overs. Usman Ghani was the pick of Audlem's bowling attack completing his spell for figures of 3 for 49. Audlem were always up with the required rate in the run chase but kept losing wickets at key times in the game against some decent bowling and shrewd field settings and eventually ran out of batsmen in the 38th over just 23 runs short of their target. Rahman Bukhari top scored with 39. Next week Audlem welcome Lymm Oughtrington Park Cricket Club to the Gorse Croft for the Sunday fixture.

The previous day saw the league X1 secure the points with a home victory against Rode Park and Lawton by what appears to be the comfortable margin of 5 wickets. At one stage of the game an easy victory was a distant prospect .. set just 116 by the visitors Audlem's reply got off to the worst possible start with Chris Shenton, Andy Rothwell and Tom Measures back in the pavilion without troubling the scorer and looking in all kinds of trouble at 10 for 3 but with Callum McIlveen joining opening batsmen Dan Butler at the wicket they were able to see off the dangerous Ian Harding who was creating the majority of the problems.

The remaining bowlers didn't pose the same threat as the scoring rate began to accelerate without too many alarms. Callum eventually fell for a fine 41 but Dan ( 41 not out ) was joined by allrounder Dave Parkinson ( 26 not out ) to bring the game to a swift conclusion in less than 26 overs with the threat of showers ever present.

Earlier in the day all of Audlem's bowlers on show played their part in dismissing the opposition for a small total with Simon Swift again on top of his game to finish with figures of 3 for 21 off six overs but man of the match, Callum was also able to claim 3 victims for only 13 to add to his contribution in the run chase.

Next week Audlem travel to Wood Lane CC near Audley which will be the halfway point of the season sitting in third position in the league table behind Porthill Park and Cheadle CC ( Staffs )

John Wainwright

Audlem Cricket Club