Thirds Win Cup Tie by 10 Wickets… and About 10 Seconds
The thirds took part in the first of two cup weekends at Heywood with a comprehensive win over Heywood that was threatened only by the weather. In the final event, despite the margin of victory, it was a matter of seconds that separated a ten wicket win and the prospect of a bowl-out as the foul weather closed in.
Heywood did well to post a rain affected target of 99 after finding themselves 28-5 courtesy of an opening blast of 4-15 from Tom Worthington and two wickets and three catches from Ethan Kite, the first of which was a remarkable one handed effort at wide mid off that left him the most surprised man on the field. The rain ended the innings early and Mr. Duckworth and Mr. Lewis decided that the revised total would be 113.
However, the gathering gloom made it obvious that this was never going to happen and the target became simply to get in the ten overs that would constitute a game. Despite some time wasting tactics in the field (we would have done exactly the same by the way), the umpires managed to get us through to the end of over ten by the skin of our teeth with the final total of 54-0 being more than enough to satisfy the statisticians. Remarkably, Skipper Steve Mac managed to earn himself fifty of those runs, with Ethan's four completing the innings.
If either had lost their wicket though, the time taken for a new batsman to enter the fray would, without doubt, have resulted in a bowl out or, even worse, a coin toss, so fine were the margins in the final analysis. So it's now over to the 2nds to repeat the feat in the championship cup tie next Sunday.