High-scoring draw for 2nd XI

Saturday saw the highest scoring game for some seasons at the Gorse Croft when the 2nd XI, bottom of Division 4, hosted high-flying Wilmslow Wayfarers 2nd XI. Over 500 runs were scored in a tense draw.

On a bright but very windy, chilly afternoon skipper Danny Thorburn won the toss and asked the visitors to bat and opening bowlers Dave Parry and Roy Wild were able to keep the openers to a modest rate as the score moved sedately to 34 off 14 overs. However the dismissal of skipper Colin Henshall (caught and bowled Parry) saw the arrival of Tom Matthews and his straight-hitting 57 from just 23 balls exemplified his first team credentials as well as endangering all the cars parked behind the boundary.

By the time Parry bowled Matthews the score had rocketed to 132 and this gave the visitors a base from which they merrily flailed at everything that was bowled at them. The car owners' relief was short-lived as Mo Waheed was the next to lambaste the bowling. Despite several appeals for catches and stumpings that went unheeded, Waheed bludgeoned 8 sixes before being indisputably stumped by Leo North off the bowling of Lyndon Woodcock for 80. Wayfarers batted on and on, finally declaring at a huge 277-6 off 40 overs with Parry taking 3 for 83 and Woodcock 3 for 61.

In the rare absence of your regular correspondent Zar Ahmed (50 overs to survive – a situation tailor-made for him), skipper Thorburn led from the front and, far from blocking out, took the game to Wayfarers with fellow opener Andy Rothwell as they shared an opening stand of 105. Rothwell scored 10 fours and a five in aggressive 52 before being caught on the boundary and the hundred had come up in just 19 overs of the 52 overs. Tom Kural then continued the chase before, with the score on 128, Thorburn was needlessly run out for an excellent 42, including a seven!

The visitors were now starting to understand that they unexpectedly had a game on their hands as Kural and Jason Leigh cheekily pinched singles. With exactly 100 more runs needed to win from 15 overs and 8 wickets in hand, Kural was caught and bowled for 43 with a shot that, had it not gone straight up in the air, would have easily cleared the boundary. Wayfarers' Tom Matthews turned the tide as he took four more wickets at regular intervals to leave Audlem on 214 for 9.

His last victim came in the penultimate over when Paul Thorburn after an enterprising innings of 14, was given out lbw. As there are no independent umpires in this division, he was given out by a team-mate, thus underlining the reputation of Audlem's cricketers for honesty and fairness. This left nine balls for Audlem's last pair to face. Amidst all the tension the increasingly excited Wayfarers were blissfully unaware of the quality facing them. With no fielder more than 10 yards from the bat, Woodcock (13 not out) and Wild (1 not out) smashed 13 from the last over and the innings closed on 232 for 9 and the game was saved.

Audlem gained 8 points and Wayfarers 15. This still leaves the 2nd XI bottom of the division, but the points from last week's non-match at Ellesmere Port still have to be decided by the league committee.

On Saturday the 2nd XI travel to tenth-place Mossley as the season reaches the half-way stage.

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