The 2nd XI got back to winning ways on Saturday with a convincing win over Worsley, who started the day only one place and 5 points behind, but the performance suggested that gap gave a false impression that these teams would be closely matched and provide us with an afternoon's entertainment of competitive cricket.
Returning captain Liam Dorsey decided to stick Worsley in, and was immediately rewarded with an exceptional spell of opening bowling from the now regular partnership of Dan Jones and Tom Worthington, who had the visitors rocked at 12/3 after 13 overs.
Back to back maidens to start set the tone, then in Dan's second over he caught the edge of school teacher Nick Irwin’s bat, who was caught behind by his student in youngster Fred Breidenbach, who I’m sure will mention it once or twice in school this week.
Going into the 12th over the visitors were trapped at 11/1, with it only being a matter of time before the next wicket fell. Tom picked up the edge to be caught at slip by Liam, then a few balls later it was another snick behind from Dan to be caught by Fred.
A mini re-build followed with 40 odd runs coming in the next spell as Lewis Keogh and Daanyaal Mehmood struggled to find their range early on, but then both got into their rhythm and picked up wickets to leave Worsley at 69/6 at the end of their spells. Keogh knocking back the middle stump of Brocklebank a particular highlight for a 7 ball duck.
Liam Dorsey then came into the attack with Dan Jones returning as the pair of them aimed to clean up the tail, with both picking up wickets to have them 102/9, before a late rally pushed them up to 136, which still looked about 100 behind par.
Dan was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 14-4-14-4, bowling only 1 wide and not conceding a single boundary from his 14 overs, but fell one wicket short of his “5 fer” for the 3rd time in 4 weeks. Maybe next week....
However, in this week's “Wide Watch”, there was an improvement from the embarrassing 38 bowled last week down to "only" 20 this week, but it’s still far too many for a side with aspirations of winning the majority of games they play and playing in higher divisions.
Chasing down 137 was never in any danger, with contributions from Ethan (31), Dan (18) and Sam (26) without any of them kicking on, before Oscar (20) and Lewis (14) saw it home with plenty in the tank.
Ethan ran out of mates pretty quickly at Stand last week, but apart from Luke going early on, everyone else chipped in with runs to knock off the below par target without a moments worry.
It’s bottom of the table Hindley St Peters up next week, so an ideal opportunity to finish the season on a brighter note and get another win on the board, with only Stretford and Bradshaw left to play before this disappointing season comes to an end.