Match Report

Our third team were hosted by Heaton CC 3rds on a gloomy afternoon in Bolton. Clifton won the toss and after a solid but uneventful start from Clifton’s openers Captain Steve McManus was dismissed following a poor, impatient shot which brought the imperious Owen Hogben (Pictured) to the crease following a reshuffle in the batting order after a late injury. Owen took his chance playing a faultless knock of 85 not out from 97 balls, for his maiden senior fifty. It was an innings Owen has been threatening all season having been posting consistently exceptional numbers in his own age group and regularly scoring 20s and 30s not out in the 2nd and 3rd teams respectively. Undoubtedly the only thing preventing Owen from playing a knock like this sooner is the fact he has had to wait patiently for his chance up the order and he didn’t disappoint hitting 7 fours and 2 big sixes and even a mistimed scoop shot from the last ball of the innings couldn’t detract from what everyone at Clifton hopes is his breakthrough innings.

Owen was ably assisted with Ethan Kite sticking around scoring a patient 19 and a rapid 41 from Sam Winstanley. An unfortunate dismissal for Jordan Higham, and a run out for Chris Thorpe chasing quick runs towards the end of the innings prevented them from troubling the scorers for too long, before Lewis Keogh finished the innings with Owen displaying some powerful hitting with two sweetly struck 4s and some good running in a useful 12 from 6 balls, contributing to the team posting a competitive total of 195.

Heaton’s innings couldn’t have got off to a worse start with young opening partnership broken in the first over with a brilliant delivery from Tom Worthington. However that was about as good as it got for Clifton’s bowlers in a bowling performance to forget. A rain delay in the 9th over left Heaton 34-1 chasing a revised target of 155 from 29 overs. Some erratic bowling combined with an inability to break some important partnerships soon enough meant that the chase always felt on for Heaton even when they lost a couple of quick wickets with less than 10 overs to go still needing around 30 runs. Some powerful hitting from S. Sastry combined with a chanceless knock of 66 from 76 balls from young opening batsman A. Bhuta put Heaton within touching distance of the win and a couple of big sixes from the latter all but confirmed only the 3rds, 3rd defeat in the league all season. The aforementioned sixes spoiled Owen Hogben’s figures who after excelling with the bat took 1 wicket at 5.88 from his 8 overs and was probably the pick of the bowlers but that will offer little consolation to a bitterly disappointed team and in particularly, Owen Hogben, who contributed so much to the game and didn’t deserve to finish on the losing side.