Toss won by: Ashley

Batted First:Alsager

In the second of four consecutive home matches the skipper won the toss and opted to bat hoping in the cloud cover and breeze the new opening bowling pair of Burt and Wardle [Probably the tallest opening bowling attack in the league] would get some decent swing and bounce off a hard Ashley strip.

Greenhalgh edged one to slips in the first over off Wardle to the Ashley skipper who managed to catch it between his legs only for it to drop out onto the floor which proved a costly mistake. Both Burt and Wardle bowled well and Greenhalgh popped a few in the air over fielders however anything slightly over pitched was smashed by Alsagers Skipper Gregory and the score moved to over 50 again without the attack taking a wicket. The Skipper urged by other senior pros to bring himself on and stop the run flow and was dispatched for 21 in his first 2 overs and Gregory brought his 50 up. Cusack came on to help stem the run flow and bowled well and was unfortunate not to get a wicket by taking a catch off his own bowling. However the pressure put on by him and the skipper who eventually managed to find his line resulted in a run out. Going for a second Greenhalgh was run out by Shelston running in from the boundary and rolling back the years with a good throw to the keeper Blain who was alert and got his victim out by a distance. There have been flashes of good fielding by Ashley 3rds however 2 more catches were dropped and several Baywatch dives along with a total collapse from the skipper resulting in a twisted knee [Which meant him running even slower !] did not help the cause. Gregory who was now joined by Feltham dispatched the Ashley attack to all parts putting on a partnership of over 100; with Gregory bringing up his 2nd career 100 in good time. Smith was brought into the attack to replace Cusack and managed to bowl the only maiden of the Alsager innings and even though he only bowled 3 overs went for a miserly 9 which was a good effort as the batting pair were seeing the ball very well.

Alsager brought up their declaration with Feltham smashing the ball back to Wardle who managed to get out of the way in time as the ball snapped the middle stump in two.

Even though for the last 2 innings the Ashley batting line up had not offered much in the way of runs the skipper had felt confident that his team were due some runs on what turned out to be an excellent batting track.

Little [Smith] and Large [Brownhill] went out to bat [So named as their jokes are of similar quality] but unfortunately Brownhill returned on the 5^th ball after edging one behind to the slips and Padmore had his first victim of the day. Shelston promoted upto the dizzy heights of 3 due to the absence of Ferris looked comfortable and hit a couple of nice boundaries but then Padmore struck again with Smith edging a good ball behind for a simple catch for the Alsager keeper Maddocks. At 20 for 2 off 10 overs the alarm bells started ringing again as Horn went out to partner Shelston. However they were soon stopped and the 50 came up with only 8 other overs being bowled with Shelston and Horn clubbing the ball to all parts. Shelston’s enthusiasm sadly bcame his downfall as he chased a bad ball and edged behind for 25 after promising so much more. Big hitting Kiwi Burt had been promoted up the order as a positive move to chase the runs needed and the skipper was not disappointed and both he and Horn [Although they were both dropped] smashed the ball to all parts. Burt was eventually adjudged LBW for 20 which brought in Jnr Wardle [Matt] who was nervous after being a little out of sorts with the bat however they were soon calmed as he square cut for 4 and batted sensibly in partnering Horn who it seemed eyes lit up with every ball hitting Padmore on his return for 2 consecutive fours followed up by a massive six and soon a partnership of 50 was made; the run chase was on. Padmore eventually struck again trapping Wardle Jnr Leg before which ended a good knock 21 and will do the confidence of a promising young batsman no harm at all. The skipper Burgess then joined Horn and was eager to join the party and quickly resulted having his thumb hit by some aggressive bowling from Freeman adding to his injury list. However they put on a quick 37 in the last 5 overs with Burgess hitting the last ball with some force straight back at Padmores knee cap which left the bowler in some considerable pain. Thankfully he managed to recover and we are all hoping he does not struggle to make next weekends fixture for Alsager. However the Ashley stump is thought to be in somewhat of a worse state…

Sadly Ashley fell 19 runs short of victory but can be pleased with a good display of batting especially Horn with 93 not out [Webmasters note: Not a bad score, but we’ve all been 93 not out. These kids need to learn that getting in and not going to make a really big score is not acceptable at this level. For an example of how to really push on see here] including 11 fours and 2 big sixes.

A good game was had by all and was played in very good spirit however the fielding needs to be brought upto scratch which will combined by another good batting display surely result in the first win of the season for the Ashley 3rds.

One piece of history was also made during the day after years of not thinking up a nick name for Dynamo Dan Eadie the Alsager scorer at the time of the introduction of Eadie’s bowling misheard the call of his name and wrote Edith; something that will stick with him for the rest of his years at Ashley CC.

FIRST INNINGS

Batting
	Batsman	How Out	Bowler	Runs
1.	Greenhalgh	Run	Out	34
2.	Gregory	Not	Out	113
3.	Feltham	Not	Out	45
4.	Maddocks	DNB
5.	Cliff	DNB
6.	Freeman	DNB
7.	Revel	DNB
8.	Stancliffe	DNB
9.	Washington	DNB
10.	Gross	DNB
11.	Padmore	DNB
			Extras	17
			Total	209/1

BOWLING
Name	O	M	R	W
Wardle J	8	0	30	0
Burt	8	0	38	0
Burgess	10	0	58	0
Cusack	9	0	30	0
Eadie	4	0	32	0
Smith	3	1	5	0

SECOND INNINGS

Batting
	Batsman	How Out	Bowler	Runs
1.	Brownhill	Ct Feltham	Padmore	2
2.	Smith	Ct Maddocks	Padmore	8
3.	Shelston	Ct Maddocks	Stancliffe	25
4.	Horn	Not	Out	93
5.	Burt	LBW	Revel	20
6.	Wardle M	LBW	Padmore	21
7.	Burgess	Not	Out	12
8.
9.
10.
11.
			Extras	10
			Total	191/5

BOWLING
Name	O	M	R	W
Padmore	12	1	61	3
Gross	5	3	7	0
Washington	6	2	18	0
Stancliffe	11	0	49	1
Revel	8	1	29	1
Freeman	6	0	25	0

Result: Draw Ashley 6 points Alsager 15 points