The drive up the A666 from Clifton to Egerton had the car wipers in over drive, as the heavens opened in style. Not a chance we’ll be starting on time. But on arrival, the pavements were relatively dry and Egerton appeared to have missed the deluge that battered Manchester Road around midday.
The sheet was taken off the strip to unearth a green top they would be proud of in New Zealand, making the toss look hugely important, especially with more rain forecast later in the afternoon. Of course Egerton won the toss and stuck Maca’s men into bat; it was going to have to be a day to earn your runs on this deck.
Four balls into the game the Clifton skipper had a different idea, and a maximum was followed by a boundary and we were off to a flyer. The third over however pretty much finished the game as a contest as Maca (10) Dan (0) and Owen (4) were all back in the shed licking their wounds. A peach of a delivery took care of McManus, before Dan drove his first ball to cover and set off for a non existent single, slipping over in the middle of the wicket when turning to get back which sealed his fate. Owen was then cleaned up second ball and Clifton were up against it at 14/3.
Three overs later, Sam Winstanley (4) chipped one up to be caught inside the ring, then Lewis Keogh was smashed on the pads in front of all three first ball to leave the visitors staring down the barrel at 26/5 as the rain started to fall.
After more than 2 hours of playing darts, Grant and Ethan put on their armbands and headed back out to the middle to try and survive the wet deck. Sawdust re-supplies will be required on Sunday. At the end of the 8th over, Ethan chipped one up to mid wicket to make it 30/6. Young Luke Jones then came to the middle and settled in quickly, as Grant tried to accelerate before falling for 15. Barty (8) followed shortly after afterwards.
A superb 50 run partnership then followed from Luke (32) and Tom Worthington (27) with Tom putting the bad balls away in style, while Luke batted with maturity beyond his years to try and bat out the overs and put something on the board to defend; falling just three balls short of batting the reduced overs, with 117 on the board. A decent fightback.
With Duckworth Lewis then working its magic to reduce the target by 20, defending 98 was always going to be a challenge. But it was rendered pretty much impossible with the way the opening bowlers started off, with two or three bad balls every over getting the treatment. Only Ethan Kite came away with any credit from the bowling attack, with a superb 3-9 off his 3.1 overs and he appears to be bowling quicker by the week.
A day to forget all round and hopefully one to put behind them as just “one of them days” where everything goes wrong. They’re a much better side than they showed on Saturday, and will be aiming to right a few wrongs at Manchester Road this weekend. Beware of the wounded animal.