Clifton 2nd XI dominate rain effected top of the league clash
After last weekends glorious sunshine the 2nd XI welcomed local rivals Swinton Moorside CC to Manchester Road in more familiar gloomy conditions. With rain forecast and conditions suiting bowling, the visitors won the toss and stuck Clifton into bat.
Despite the weather, play was able to start at the scheduled 12:30, testament to the ground staff and willingness of both teams. Steve McManus and Ethan Kite got Clifton off to a solid start, negating a tricky 4 over spell before the rain became too much and the umpires were forced to take the players off.
Thankfully the rain eased and it wasn’t too long before play was able to commence with the match reduced to 34 overs. The Swinton openers were straight into their stride bowling a good line and length removing Steve for 10 with the score at 25/1. Dan Jones joined Ethan at the crease, rather than panic, with the overhead conditions still favouring the bowlers, both youngsters demonstrated maturity, skill and great shot selection putting on a partnership of 93 at a quick rate. Looking like he was on his way to 50, and looking to up the rate, Dan (41) was slightly unfortunate to be caught behind to a great catch by the young Swinton wicket keeper.
Strong foundations had been lay allowing the inform Sam Winstanley to come and express himself hitting a rapid 30, which included 3x 6’s, and left a lot of locals wincing as the ball cleared the fence in the direction of the houses.
After Sam was dismissed the visitors were able to pick up some quick wickets with Oliver Dunn (0) and Owen Hogben (4) not causing the scorers too much trouble, leaving the score at 174/5. Ethan continued in his calm measured way, carrying his bat and seeing his team to the close of innings with the score at 189/5. A fantastic knock from Ethan (71* of 90 balls) which included 10 boundaries.
Clifton went into the second innings confident after posting a strong score, which was further aided by DLS, setting the visitors 194 to close the gap on the league leaders.
Following the trend of the first innings, and for a lot of the season, it was Clifton’s youngsters that continued to impress. Despite being “demoted” to point, Owen Hogben broke the opening partnership with an electric runout, his second direct hit in as many overs (the first adjudged to be not out). Owen’s fielding masterclass was not finished there as he took a great grab, diving forwards to remove another top order Swinton batsman.
Tom Worthington bowled a great opening spell, regularly beating the outside of the bat, and was rather unfortunate to finish with just the 1 wicket (7-2-17-1). Coming on first change, Lewis Keogh continued to keep things tight, he was able to extract some good pace and bounce out of the wicket taking the game away from the visitors (6-1-11-1).
With Clifton dominating the only question that remained was were the home team able to secure a bonus point. With that starting to look unlikely with the score at 61/4 up stepped Dan (4.3-0-16-4) and Owen (9-0-39-3). Both lads bowled great spells and were able to take the remaining wickets with just an over to spare leaving Swinton 123/10.
The victory over Swinton means Clifton are one step closer to league glory.