1st XI v Middleton CC - 27th May 2017 (Wood Cup Rnd 1)

The forecast was thundery showers. We had a little rain and a brisk southerly blew the flag, which was at half-mast in memory of those who lost their lives last Monday in the MEN Arena bomb attack. The Pennine Cricket League had respectfully requested that players and officials held a minute’s silence before the start of the match and the first photograph in today’s selection covers this.
Skipper Swampy won the toss and elected to field, pretty much guessing that the side batting second could control their innings, which was likely to be governed by the mysterious sums of Messrs Duckwork and Lewis. And so this came to pass but not before Middleton had posted an impressive 297 for 6 from 50 overs. It could have been more runs for fewer wickets had Swampy not chucked the ball to Sneaky Taylor (presumably, after his head had been pecked) for the last two overs from the Turf Pit Lane end. Of course he finished with 4 for 7 dismissing the Middleton Pro on 132 and No 4, Jones on 67. His final wicket was a running catch by Kkhherry (phonetic Afrikaans) Snyman on the cow corner boundary Kkhherry is suffering from a sore shoulder, just now, which, though painful, served him well on the bowling average front as the rest apart from Sneaky went for plenty. His partner is also arriving tomorrow so he may be saving himself……
During the Middleton innings, a six caused havoc on the Bowling Green catching one of the Lees & Hey bowlers on the right temple felling him. The ambulance was called and arrived quickly, by then he had been ferried into the Bowls Pavilion and attended to by the paramedic. All at Moorside hope that he is none the worse for his injury and wish him well.
By now the breeze had turned into a cool wind and the balmy temperature at the start of the match lost 7-8 degrees “C”. The promised rain, with Thunder only in the distance, delayed the start of the Moorside innings and so D/L applied with umpire Dave Lees using both fingers and toes to arrive at a revised target of ?? from ?? overs and Moorside had nine wickets to play with.
Throughout the match a run rate of just over 6 an over indicated that the score was gettable. Openers Danny and Jack put on 22 with Danny scoring the lions share before he went for 14? Skipper Rick arrived and using the first ball to play himself in promptly swatted 33 from 29 before he fell run out brilliantly by Thomas Rutter with one wicket to aim at. Enter Kkhherry soon joined by Usain Balti Khan (renamed this season because of his recently-acquired speed both chasing boundaries and running between the wickets). His boots have been checked and there is no evidence of motorisation. When “on-song” lefties are a joy to watch and Usain is no exception. Between them Usain and Kherry put on 80 before the latter holed out to deep mid-off hitting into the wind for 50. As was often the case when one went the other followed soon after. Immy scored an impressive 33 from 44.
Ronnie Venger tried to keep things ticking but scooped another attempted six into the hands of long-on. After that, it looked bad with the rate creeping up to 7 an over. But then Pip Taylor decided to have a go and with Drew Fullalove at last-man-in put on a few and reduced the asking to 42 from 8. For some reason best known to himself Pip looking for cow corner missed completely and was run out (sorry stumped).
A fair attempt against the League Leaders. Now, do we go into the Tanner Cup or is that it? T-20 on Bank Holiday Monday but the forecast is to p1ss down all day, Hey-Ho Oldham weather and all that.