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2ND XI V MALPAS (A) 28/05/2011

An early start for Bredbury for the long trip to Malpas. Several changes again this week with a rash of weddings and failed fitness tests. Bertie quite clearly was not paying attention as accepting Evo’s generous offer to play for the 2’s, he had forgotten that even his adventurous brand of driving was unlikely to get him back from the welsh border by 7.45 for the united kick off.

Evo won the toss and bearing in mind the disappointing return on the batting front so far elected to stick the opposition in. This looked less of a good idea once they had raced away to a 120 start with the openers clocking up nearly a run a ball.

Their fun was only spoiled when Andy Whitaker started to get a grip at one end and more tellingly when Andy Gaw in his first 2nd team outing of the season settled on a line and length that was to eventually bring him 2 wickets in 9 controlled overs at a little over 3 runs per over. Sadly the damage had been done and on a very firm wicket Bredbury could not pull the opposition back as they finally closed on 255 for 8. This despite an encouraging 2nd spell from Andy Mc coming back well in his second spell to pick up 3 cheap wickets near the end.

Bredbury opened up with Jimmy and Clarkie, Jimmy was soon into his stride picking off Malpas’s keen if wayward opening bowler. The stand stood at 40 in less than 10 when Jimmy made his first (and as it happened last) mistake and was taken by the keeper. Coxy looked to get off to a start unfortunately after Clarkie had played an excellent cover drive for 4 the next ball he managed to stick straight up in the air. Clarkie felt there was a single, Coxy didn’t and was left a yard and a half short when he finally responded. This as it turned out brought Bredbury’s innings shuddering to a halt as Clarkie followed shortly afterwards.

Much as Bredbury fought the run rate slumped and wickets fell regularly. As soon as someone got a start they were promptly out with Jimmy remaining top scorer on 31. It was left to Bredbury’s Andys, Mchale and Whittaker to keep a level head and at least rescue a draw, Bredbury picking up 8 points to Malpas’s 17.

More application and consistency required from the seconds especially in the batting.

A short trip to Stockport saw the saints taste defeat for the first time. The rain greeted us at Stockport but didn’t stay long enough to affect the game.
Stockport elected to bat first and both our opening bowlers we’re unlucky not to claim a wicket. Unfortunately Stockport got off to a flier. A change of bowling brought the breakthrough, Legs leading by example and making a vital breakthrough. The Introduction of the spin twins started to turn the game back into our favour, between Barls and Dicko they bowled 36 overs and truly put Bredbury back in the driving seat. Dicko was as consistant as we’ve seen him and it was like having 2 Barly’s bowling (praise doesn’t come much higher than that) and picked up a brilliant 4-40. Barly was his usual self und was unlucky not to finish with more than 2 wickets from his 21 overs. A freak injury sustained by Leesy was the only real negative from the first half. To fill you in Leesy stopped a quickly moving ball at backward point which resulted in Leesy’s metacarpal poking through the skin. If anyone is to blame I recommend blaming our skipper for bowling short and wide!
Nutts took Leesy’s place at the top of the order. Unfotunately Bredbury didn’t get off to the start they wanted. Legs and Woody were the only batsmen to offer resistance, Paul with 40 and Chris with 52. Unfortunately Chris ran out of partners and therefore had to risk his wicket which led to the saints falling 30 runs shy.

Bredbury played host to Timperley hoping for an unheard start to the season with 2 wins out of 2!
Bredbury opted to bat first and it wasn’t long before Leesy was up to his usual tricks firing balls to the boundary and getting us off to a flying start, unfortunately this didn’t continue for as long as we’d have liked as Leesy fell for 32. After a good start the Bredbury middle order had the chance to impose themselves and enjoy batting on a very good track. Leggo certainly did this and dispatched balls to fences all around the ground and soon brought his 50 up. Both the Keyworth brothers briefly stayed with Legs but both committed the cardinal sin as batsmen by getting themselves set and not capitalizing on a start and both softly giving their wickets away in the low 20’s. Regardless of the lack of support Legs was leading by example and finished with a fantastic 88. Bredbury finished on 213 all out.
The opening spell was dominated by the Ush man who removed the Timperley top 4 (what more can you ask for from an opening bowler?). Barley was brought into the attack early after last weeks heroics and picked up a wicket. After Barley Dicko stepped up and was a marked improvement from last week. Dicko’s wicket came from a spectacular catch from Ziggy, although Dicko should thank Ziggy he deserved his wicket and should have had another if it wasn’t for a dropped catch. Tahir took his first 2 wickets for the club after a wayward start he soon tightened up and began asking questions of the batsmen and showed us the potential he possesses. Quite fittingly Legs took the last wicket and sealed the win with Timperely about 30 runs shy.
Another good performance and another win! Lots of positives and still plenty more to come! No one can complain about a win but we should have really been looking at a score above 250 and I’ve no doubt things will click soon enough with multiple batsmen converting starts into proper runs! Next week we take on Stockport where we’ll be doing anything possible to make it 3 from 3!

After last week’s great win Bredbury were set a more challenging task at Heaton Mersey. Heaton Mersey batted first and after a tight start with only 6 runs from the first 7 overs the openers set into the bowling on an excellent deck. Bredbury were soon chasing leather and Heaton Mersey were one short of 50 when Becks won an LBW decision from the umpire. The new batsman was missed on 0 in the gully and soon made Bredbury pay for this miss, eventually accumulating 95. Despite an excellent spell from Andy Whittaker flighting it well into a persistent force 9 gale Bredbury could not stop the flow of runs and Heaton Mersey eventually closed on an impressive 256 for 3.

This was not impossible as previously alluded to the wicket was almost perfect and Nick and Clarkie had shown good form the week before. Nick as usual set off like a train but unfortunately missed a straight one from their opening bowler. Jimmy came in and with the Heaton Mersey attack either bowling crackers or half volleys they survived the good ones and dispatched the rubbish hurtling to a 50 stand in 10 overs. It was here that the wheels fell off as Bredbury subsided from 64 for 1 to 77 for 6 as Heaton Mersey’s captain blew away the top order. Captain Evo and Ant Cox held things up with a stand of 34, but when Evo was caught cutting to point that was pretty much it.

So after a promising first week the 2’s now have to regroup for the visit of Stockport next Saturday.

2ND XI V BOLLINGTON 23/04/2011

v Warrington 23/4

Bredbury travelled to last year’s third place finishers Warrington, hoping to start the season with a win.
After 7 overs Bredbury finally had 11 players at Warrington (Cough, Cough!! Tahir and Ben!!), needless to say the new fines capping system was implemented.

Bredbury were asked to bat first and it wasn’t long before we saw the first maximum of the season thanks to a Leesy extra cover drive (who’d of thought this was his first match in 2 years!) Unfortunately Leesy fell to a huge in ducker before he could really get going, never the less a positive start.
Ziggy strode to the crease and before long he was his positive self punishing anything short and favouring the straight drive which is ironic after electing not to practice the lofted drive on Thursday as he boldly stated “I don’t play that shot”.
Regardless of which shots brought him the runs Ziggy was soon waving his bat to the applauding crowd.
A good partnership between Ziggy (71) and Legs put us in a strong position.
Unfortunately Bredbury suffered a collapse and lost 6 wickets for around 30 runs, only Keys offered some resistance with 35 not out. Bredbury Finished on 177 agonisingly short of maximum batting points.

As Bredbury started the 2nd Half we all knew that it would be difficult to chase down a reasonable score on a big ground first game of the season.
Woody and the Ushman opened up and I’m very pleased the King of the swingers is back!, If I were to report that Ush was bowling Banana’s I’d be doing him an injustice! Ush soon picked up the first wicket and was unfortunate not to collect more.
The introduction of Barly repaid the skippers decision instantly when he took his first wicket with his first ball and soon bedded in for a lengthy spell.
Barly was both economical and picked up wickets at a steady rate, what more can you ask for? Spells from Tahir and Dicko unfortunately didn’t pick up wickets but this just left more for Barly to Claim.
A good spell from our Skip got us an important breakthrough and quite simply Barly did the rest.
Warrington lost their last wicket just 14 runs short but the bowling performance belonged to old ‘Golden Arm’ Graham Barlow who finished with 8-50!

24 points to start the season is a great result against the team who finished one place above us last year.
As Ziggy would say 21 wins to go!

The 2nd team kicked off their campaign with a thorough dismantling of what is normally a strong Bollington outfit.
Captain Evo strode out to the middle with the Bollington skipper and having called correctly took the pragmatic approach of giving the opposition the first chance to see how rusty their batsmen were after a winter off.
It soon showed that more than cobwebs needed to brushed away as Matt Beckett and Jimmy Barber swept through the top order.

After 40 minutes Bollington’s innings lay in ruins with the total standing at 41 for 7, 5 to a new less slim line Matt Beckett, the extra weight obviously means he has added half a yard as he builds up momentum lumbering down the hill! Jimmy back to his best form consistently swung it and picked up the other 2.
It has to be said that despite a couple of half chances, Bredbury took some superb chances with top drawer efforts from Dylan and Andy Whittaker and Greeny not far behind as he and Evo and Nutts who took the first 3 catches showing how important and good keeper and slip cordon is.

At this point the more shallow amongst us and those with girlfriends away for the weekend were eyeing a 3.30 finish giving ample time to top up on the tan in the searing afternoon heat, whilst maybe enjoying the new improved beers on offer at the bar.
However Bollington’s number 8 had other ideas as he put some of his team mates to shame with a correct showing and some attractive shots. Bollington almost doubled their total for the next wicket, by this time Evo had rung the changes bringing on Andy Whittaker and Ant Cox. Andy bowled well challenging the batsmen with some looping flight; Coxy took a couple of overs to get settled but then bowled a penetrating line at a lively pace.
It was this that finally brought about the break through as Coxy produced a gem to bowl the number 9 for 13 and then took the 9th wicket with the next man LBW.
This was our 2nd attempt to remove him, their umpire already having given out to Andy Whittaker, it looked like he had hit it and Evo asked for a reprieve, a sporting gesture although one made easier by Bollington’s total at 82 for 8! Andy finally got his reward with another smart catch with Evo moving to his right to pick up a good low catch.

So there you had it 94 all out an excellent all round performance from 4 bowlers led by Matt Beckett the veteran of the pack at 26 who took 5 for 27.

Bredbury opened up with Clarky and Nick Coffey both of whom had been in good form batting together last year.
Nick took off where he left off hitting the ball cleanly to all parts from the off.
Clarkie was more circumspect reckoning that as the required asking rate was a mammoth 1.34 runs an over there wasn’t really any need for risk. This saw Bredbury fly out the blocks with 35 in the first 5 overs, 34 of them to Nick! However it fell to Clarky to strike the first '6' of the season no surprise dear readers I hear you shout.
Clarky shaped for the all too familiar cut shot which point parried round the corner.
Calling for a tight 2nd run the throw fizzed in and somehow managed to evade wicket keeper and 4 fielders to go to skimming to the boundary, 6 to Clarke!
This seemed to get him going however it was Nick who continued to lead the way taking Bollington’s young attack apart.
Scores were level by the 15th over and the Bollington captain called all his men bar one up to stop the signal.
Smack as Nick found the middle of the bat and the ball sailed off towards the longest boundary and straight down the throat of the one man left out.
Scores level Nick gone for an excellent 64 and Bollington get their one point.
Jimmy came out and soon pushed one through the slips to complete the rout.
An excellent performance which boded well for future tougher assignments, all the bowlers performing so well that Andy Mchale was unable to get into the action.

So Bredbury 20 Bollington 1 and off to Heaton Mersey next week.

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Bredbury St Marks Cricket Club Official Website