And The 3rds Go Marching On!
The thirds emulated the seconds by reaching the semi-final of their cup competition courtesy of a routine dismantling of Shaw who play two divisions below. Batting first, the batting line up was in positive mode from ball one until the introduction of the slow bowling option and a minor irritation of a few wickets lost. Once his spell of eight overs, with three wickets for fourteen was over, it was back to business, with Dan Jones dominating every bowling option in a sparkling knock of 83 in 63 balls with 13 fours. The innings closed on 230-9 with contributions of 36 in 35 balls from skipper Steve McManus and a swashbuckling 25 in 22 from Jack Barton adding to the excitement from the near frozen crowd. Young Hiruka Perera then took a decent catch in the first over of the reply and then the writing was truly on the wall when an unfortunate batsman had to be unceremoniously carried, ‘fireman’s lift’ style from the field after popping a leg muscle. The rest of the batting order then melted away in the face of good bowling by all four selected bowlers with Owen Hogben taking the plaudits with 4-11 off 7.4 overs. So it’s all eyes on the draw now, with Prestwich, Denton West and Heywood standing in the way of silverware for Steve and his youthful team.