Ashley vs Runcorn

Date:  Sunday 2^nd August

Venue: Runcorn (Ashley home team)

Toss won by: Ashley

Batted First: Ashley

League high-flyers Runcorn completed the double over Ashley in a low scoring game that was transferred to Runcorn due to a waterlogged pitch at Ashley.

Ashley won the toss and elected to bat on a surprisingly good wicket that belied the inclement weather conditions of recent days. Shakespeare was dropped, expensively as it turned out, on 4 by 2^nd slip Keenan (L), who made up by accounting for Smith a few balls later with an even harder catch. Pretorius then continued to despatch the top order cheaply with significant variation in his pace and length. Only Semple (J) threatened to provide support to the prolific Shakespeare. Their 60 run partnership was ended by an athletic diving catch at Cow and the Ashley wickets continued to fall. The only high point was that the tail enders hung around just long enough for Shakespeare to record his ton where he was ultimately left stranded.

Confident of seeing off the runs, Runcorn kept their best batsmen for the middle order. However, solid spells from Cusack and Jackson showed the benefits of bowling decent line and length on a fair pitch, as they accounted for three wickets for 20 between them. Spinners Eadie and Axon saw off another three Runcorn men and at 63-6 Ashley sensed a potential upset. However, Pretorius and Rowland displayed ability way above their batting position and quickly secured the winning runs despite an excellent spell of pace from Shakespeare.

There were several champagne moments in the match to record. A massive 6 from Runcorn’s Rowland cleared the 25m perimeter net and left a homeowner with a bill for new ridge tiles. An excellent fielding display by Wes Semple, dragged from retirement, included stopping a flying half-volley on the boundary with a superbly timed run and taking a running catch at deep mid-off as his son looked on from mid-on. Enthusiasm and vocal encouragement was in abundance from the Ashley team, none more so than the ever committed Howe, whose excellent fielding display was marred only slightly as his fielding barrier was inexplicably breached as the ball trickled between his legs for 4. Cusack demonstrated cat like abilities at Gully, a diving left hand catch bounced out of his hands, but a low one to his right a few overs later stuck like glue. Keeper Smith’s helmet scored 5 (more than 9 of the Ashley team) whose glovework was otherwise excellent; and Coleman enjoyed his first taste of captaincy despite getting away with placing three men behind square on the legside for three balls to Martin ‘Larwood’ Howe.

FIRST INNINGS

Batting
	Batsman	How Out	Bowler	Runs
1.	T Smith	Ct L Keenan	R Pretorius	2
2.	A Shakespeare	Not	Out	100
3.	D Jackson	Bowled	R Pretorius	3
4.	R Axon	Ct Magee	R Pretorius	0
5.	G Aspden	Bowled	R Pretorius	0
6.	J Semple	Ct	L Keenan	8
7.	S Coleman	LBW	McNamara	0
8.	L Cusack	Ct McNamara	L Keenan	0
9.	M Howe	Ct Foster	J Duke	1
10.	D Eadie	Run	Out	1
11.	W Semple	Bowled	J Duke	1
			Extras	5
			Total	121

BOWLING
Name	O	M	R	W
R Pretorius	6	1	11	4
J Duke	7.4	1	26	2
C Wright	5	0	20	0
L Keenan	4	0	30	2
M Keenan	1	0	2	0
D McNamara	7	0	29	1

SECOND INNINGS

Batting
	Batsman	How Out	Bowler	Runs
1.	L Keenan	Bowled	Cusack	2
2.	M Keenan	Bowled	Jackson	2
3.	C Lindon	Bowled	Jackson	7
4.	J Bury	Ct Cusack	Axon	23
5.	W Magee	Ct Semple (W)	Eadie	13
6.	D Foster	Bowled	Axon	8
7.	S Rowland	Not	Out	17
8.	R Pretorius	Not	Out	43
9.
10.
11.
			Extras
			Total

BOWLING
Name	O	M	R	W
Cusack	6	0	10	1
Jackson	7	3	10	2
Eadie	6	0	31	1
Axon	5	0	24	2
Shakespeare	3	1	12	0
Howe	2.1	0	28	0

Result: Runcorn win by 4wkts (Ashley 9pts, Runcorn 25pts)