Catching Practice Required for Wasteful 3rds
With the firsts licking their wounds, the thirds provided their own version of a cricketing cliche as 'catches win matches' resounded around the vast empty spaces of Radcliffe Cricket Club. A ground that has borne witness to the likes of Gary Sobers and Frank Worrall, would have had them guffawing in amusement as catch after catch went down (I lost count at six) as Lakeside rattled up 225-2 which, to be honest, they should have been disappointed and even embarrassed with in truth as, at 171-0, with nine overs to play, they should have been looking in excess of 260 as the mid-innings bowling went well and truly to pot.
As it was, the total looked quite gettable as Macca and Sam strode to the middle. Steve Mac started to look imperious as 55 were on the board in quick time and the Lakeside players must have been re-entering the nightmare from last season when he scored 111 in 44 balls in a 20 over game against the same opposition. However, it was not to be, as the heat and the absence of a strong batting line up gradually ate into the reply.
When Steve went for 54 at almost a run a ball, the writing was on the wall and it became a bonus point chase which almost came to fruition as, from 120-8. Young Luke Jones posted his own "Daniel who?" statement with a senior top score of 26. Sick Note Dunn limped in at eleven to try and push the score to the 169 required, but the innings fell nine short when Harrison Keogh (Lewis who?) who had earlier shown his fellow bowlers how to bowl line and length, sacrificed himself to a run out try to keep Ollie on strike.