Manchester Road was bathed in sunshine to welcome Whalley Range, as stand-in skipper, Rob Meredith, led out his side to try and follow up last week’s hard-fought victory at Golborne.
After chasing promotion in Div 5 last season, then winning the 2nd XI Championship Cup - beating Div 4 Brooksbottom in the Final - Clifton’s 2nd XI somehow find themselves in Div 6 South & Central for this season. Promotion for this talented squad is a must.
Whalley Range won the toss and opted to bat on a sun-drenched deck, with the early arrivals picking their spot for the afternoon and applying their suncream, while Drew lapped the ground in search for a bench with the softest wood for his regular afternoon nap during the second innings. It’s hard work this groundsman lark.
As the new clock under the scoreboard ticked over to 12:30, Dan Jones was given the new ball for the first time, opening the game with a front foot no ball. Re-marking of the run-up required. After 3 runs from the first over, their opening bat stared down at Rob Meredith ambling up the hill ready to unleash his first delivery of the match. With Rob’s thumb clearly still cramping from the coin toss, he slammed his first delivery next to his feet and watched it roll off the track for a wide. Just the electric start he was after. 3 balls later however, Rob had his man, caught behind.
It was a mixed start from the opening bowlers, with threatening deliveries being followed by loose balls that Whalley Range's top order could put their bat through. In the last ball of the 5th over from Dan Jones, we saw the highlight of the afternoon, with Chris Thorpe rolling back the years with a superb one-handed catch at extra cover; the first of 3 catches for Thorpe Senior, the last of them managing to almost rip his fingernail off. Tom Worthington, Jordy Higham and Owen Hogben came into the attack and started chipping away at the batting line-up, with only the number 4, Pranav Hande, offering any real resistance with a classy knock of 62, allowing Whalley Range to post a below par, but competitive target of 153.
Steve McManus got the run chase off to a flying start with a swashbuckling 40, which included a massive 6 to clear the long boundary. An innings binding 55 from Jordy Higham put Clifton in poll position, supported by a 21 from Steve Judge; but the highlight of the chase had to be the unique bowling action and delivery of Whalley Range's E. Speed. A day he'd like to forget as slow full toss after full toss were pulled into the fence of the short boundary. The sight of him still bowling in the nets long after the game had finished suggested he didn't want to go through that again. I was tempted to walk over to him with a pint and give him a hug.
The win takes the 2nd XI up to second in the table, just one point behind Swinton Moorside, and looking in great shape to put in a strong promotion challenge, with plenty more still to come from this young side if they can tidy up their bowling and be a little more composed with the bat.