After starting the season with two wins from two, the 2s took to the field on Saturday to try and make it a perfect three from three.That’s a lot of 2, to and twos!
Woodbank arrived at Manchester Road and opted to have a bat, following a successful flip of the coin that landed on yet another superb Drew Hogben prepared deck. Young Oscar struggled to find his rhythm in the early exchanges, and Woodbank were off to a flyer at 36/0 from the first 5.
Lewis Keogh replaced Oscar up the hill, shortly after Tom had cleaned up their opener at the other end. Lewis also struggled to find his line, with too many wides to build pressure and the visitors scoreboard kept ticking over. Tom took another two scalps in his next two overs to leave Woodbank on 54/3 after 10 and bringing Clifton back into the game, Tom finishing with 3-34 from his 11 overs.
Keogh shortly made it 68/4 uprooting the middle stump, before Dan Jones and Elliot Hogben came on to turn the screw. Dan took a wicket in his first over and finished with economical figures of 1-11 from his 7 over spell. A 70 run partnership was broken by a caught and bowled from Owen, who then wrapped up the tail to finish with impressive figures of 4-14 from his 6 overs at the death.
The story of the bowling however was the 48 extras given away (31 of them wides), which gave the Clifton batsmen a fair bit of catching up to do before a ball was hit in anger.
The chase didn’t get off to the best of starts when stand-in opener Sam Winstanley was bowled for 4, but a partnership of 93 then followed between youngsters Ethan Kite (36) and Dan Jones (77) to put Clifton in the driving seat. The game was then sealed with what is becoming a regular middle order contribution from Owen (19*) and Lewis (20), and Oscar Thorpe finished it off with 12 from 8, but not before smashing one back down the ground that ended as a nasty one into bowler Olivia Kay's face. Thankfully she was up and ok after not too long and was looked after by the Clifton Nightingales in Megan and Karen. Gladly she was still able to laugh off the quip that it was technically a dropped catch !
So another 6 points for the 2s which leaves them top of the table, an impressive start given the number of regulars missing (5 in total) from the previous Saturday’s line-up. Much tighter lines will be required from the bowlers however, if this unbeaten start is to continue. The batting depth will be tested properly at some point otherwise.