Welcome to Clifton Cricket Club

Saturday saw the arrival of newly promoted Greenfield CC to Manchester Road who were no doubt looking to capitalise on our recent poor run of form. Winning the toss Greenfield stuck us in to bat and openers Cross and Holt set about putting a decent total on the board. The boys got us off to a solid start scoring 61 before the first wicket fell, when Adam was bowled for 24. 

Gareth set out his stall from this point on looking to bat through the innings and score a big hundred. Unfortunately he lost his second partner, Charlie Dorsey, quite quickly which meant a slight change in tactic. With Greenfield bowling tight lines, the score slowed up somewhat and Gareth, now joined by Sam Dorsey, decided that boundaries were the way to go. Crossy eventually fell for a great 91 after becoming the 3^rd victim of Bradley Woolley’s quicker ball.  The rest of the lads toiled away and with some good late hitting from Cheetham and McCann, Clifton reached 211 all out.

Looking to get the season up and running the Clifton opening pair of Barker and Cross ripped through the opening pair with ease as Greenfield found themselves 26-2. Greenfield’s Pro offered some resistance as he battled through but loosing partners at regular intervals made his task almost impossible. Greenfield were eventually bowled out for 90 with Cross following up his 91 with 6-49 and Barker chipping in with a vital 3-34.

1st XI Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/745035/1st_innings

Our 2^nd XI visited old rivals Elton in what was sure to be a tight and evenly matched game. Bowling first Clifton wanted to keep scoring to a minimum and ensure that building pressure would lead to wickets. Looking at the stats this definitely worked as no Clifton bowler went above 4 an over. Regular wickets were taken and Elton were dismissed for an under par 113 with skipper Reade being the best of the bunch with 5-39.

In the second innings Clifton’s top 4 all fell cheaply as none of them managed to break into the 20’s as Elton looked to defend their total. Young Keshana Fonseka came in at number 5 and batted well beyond his years. The U13 batsman played a vital knock of 46* taking Clifton through to victory with 10 overs to spare.

2nd XI Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/745153/1st_innings

Greenfield CC returned to Manchester Road on Sunday and brought their 3^rd XI to face our 3rd XI.  Greenfield batted first and looked to set Clifton a tough total to chase. Greenfield opener, Lees, batted well and carried his bat right the way through the innings for 61*. The rest of the team never really got going and some good quick bowling from another young gun Rohan Fernando meant that Greenfield were restricted to 157 after their 40 overs. This total could have been a lot less if Clifton had not given them 35 (their 2^nd top score) in extras.

In reply only two Clifton batsmen showed any sort of form with Dave Walsh battling for 108 balls for his 73 not out and Rohan Fernando, following up from his 1^st innings heroics, survived a bout of cramp to finish 56 not out. A fantastic victory for Nick and the lads with the only negative being 5 of the Clifton wickets being clean bowled with the majority looking to work straight balls through mid-wicket.

3rd XI  Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/745687/1st_innings

Overall a fantastic weekend for the Kingfishers!

Saturday saw the arrival of newly promoted Greenfield CC to Manchester Road who were no doubt looking to capitalise on our recent poor run of form. Winning the toss Greenfield stuck us in to bat and openers Cross and Holt set about putting a decent total on the board. The boys got us off to a solid start scoring 61 before the first wicket fell, when Adam was bowled for 24. 

Gareth set out his stall from this point on looking to bat through the innings and score a big hundred. Unfortunately he lost his second partner, Charlie Dorsey, quite quickly which meant a slight change in tactic. With Greenfield bowling tight lines, the score slowed up somewhat and Gareth, now joined by Sam Dorsey, decided that boundaries were the way to go. Crossy eventually fell for a great 91 after becoming the 3^rd victim of Bradley Woolley’s quicker ball.  The rest of the lads toiled away and with some good late hitting from Cheetham and McCann, Clifton reached 211 all out.

Looking to get the season up and running the Clifton opening pair of Barker and Cross ripped through the opening pair with ease as Greenfield found themselves 26-2. Greenfield’s Pro offered some resistance as he battled through but loosing partners at regular intervals made his task almost impossible. Greenfield were eventually bowled out for 90 with Cross following up his 91 with 6-49 and Barker chipping in with a vital 3-34.

1st XI Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/745035/1st_innings

Our 2^nd XI visited old rivals Elton in what was sure to be a tight and evenly matched game. Bowling first Clifton wanted to keep scoring to a minimum and ensure that building pressure would lead to wickets. Looking at the stats this definitely worked as no Clifton bowler went above 4 an over. Regular wickets were taken and Elton were dismissed for an under par 113 with skipper Reade being the best of the bunch with 5-39.

In the second innings Clifton’s top 4 all fell cheaply as none of them managed to break into the 20’s as Elton looked to defend their total. Young Keshana Fonseka came in at number 5 and batted well beyond his years. The U13 batsman played a vital knock of 46* taking Clifton through to victory with 10 overs to spare.

2nd XI Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/745153/1st_innings

Greenfield CC returned to Manchester Road on Sunday and brought their 3^rd XI to face our 3rd XI.  Greenfield batted first and looked to set Clifton a tough total to chase. Greenfield opener, Lees, batted well and carried his bat right the way through the innings for 61*. The rest of the team never really got going and some good quick bowling from another young gun Rohan Fernando meant that Greenfield were restricted to 157 after their 40 overs. This total could have been a lot less if Clifton had not given them 35 (their 2^nd top score) in extras.

In reply only two Clifton batsmen showed any sort of form with Dave Walsh battling for 108 balls for his 73 not out and Rohan Fernando, following up from his 1^st innings heroics, survived a bout of cramp to finish 56 not out. A fantastic victory for Nick and the lads with the only negative being 5 of the Clifton wickets being clean bowled with the majority looking to work straight balls through mid-wicket.

3rd XI  Scorecard - 

Overall a fantastic weekend for the Kingfishers!

The 1^st XI suffered a spot of Déjà vu this weekend with two equally demoralising defeats on Saturday and Sunday to Flixton C&SC and Moorside CC respectively. Unfortunately, the team is struggling with both bat and ball at this moment in time but we’re all sure the boys will get back to performing to the best of their abilities as we all know they can.

1st XI Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/743362/1st_innings

Sadly, Sundays defeat sees the first XI go out of the Derek Kay Cup at the first hurdle, admittedly the unavailability of five 1^st XI players and the injury of another half way through the game did not help but these things can happen. 

On the plus side David Dempster performed very well with the ball on his first XI return picking up 4-49 and fellow spinner Joe McCann also bowled nicely for his 3-40.

1st XI Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/743870/1st_innings

The 2^nd XI came up against a strong Radcliffe 1^st XI on Saturday, and in what was a great game, managed to pull off a fantastic victory. Batting first Radcliffe managed to get to 192-9 from their 45 overs blasting nearly half their total in boundaries alone. Rob Reade was the best of the bunch for Clifton taking 3-68 off is 14 overs whilst Rob Meredith plucked away at the other end going at just over 2 an over.

The 2’s set about the total with a measured approach trying to leave wickets in the tent if necessary. This approach seemed to be working fine until a couple of wickets fell meaning the run rate needed to be stepped up.  Working the ball around nicely and running quick singles David Dempster, Ethan Harding and Dan Ainscough upped the run rate and with a few lusty blows from the latter Clifton saw the chase through with Dan finishing 46 not out.

2nd XI Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/743471/1st_innings

Our 3^rd XI visited Glodwick on Sunday with a rather depleted team again due to unavailability throughout the club. Glodwick posted a decent 186/5 from their 40 overs but only one Clifton batsman would need to get going to allow them a chance at chasing it down. Unfortunately, nobody really kicked on despite a few making starts. Sam Brown, Andy Tocher and Nick Flaxman all crept into the 20’s before falling but with the rest of the team only managing 36 between them Clifton fell for 108.

3rd XI Scorecard - https://www.crichq.com/matches/743959/1st_innings

This weekend see’s all three teams in action again and with availability looking a lot better let’s hope for a full house of victories for the Kingfishers.

After thebiblical storm on Saturdaythe 3^rd XIwere the only team to get any play in this weekend as Sunday brought somesunshine and a visit from Whalley Range CC.

Clifton,batting first, looked to post a decent total but unfortunately lost an earlywicket with Joe Parker being adjudged LBW after 9 balls. This brought theChairman to the crease and he got the innings up and running alongside DanAinscough. The pair batted nicely for 35 and 44 respectively before bothfalling in quick succession.  Ethan Harding then joined the fray and played a well-timedknock of 58 off 58 including some lovely looking shots though both the off andleg side. He was aided by Harry Golland who stuck around with Ethan playingsome nice shots of his own. Aided by some extras, the 3rds amassed 175 fromtheir 40 overs which was probably a tad under par but with a good young bowlingline up confidence was still high.

WhalleyRange started their chase but also lost early wickets. There was a bit of ascare for the skipper as two batsmen started to score quick boundaries and theClifton target seemed to be easily reachable. Some steady bowling then pulledit back and regular wickets started to fall. Whalley Range were eventuallydismissed for 118 with Joe Parker being the pick of the bowlers with 4-54.