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Ashley vs Northwich Date: Saturday 12th September 2009 Venue: Northwich Toss won by: AshleyBatted First: Northwich |
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Ashley maintained their division one status for another year on Saturday with a comprehensive 9 wicket win away to promotion chasing Northwich. Bradshaw and Barber again partners as they knocked off the 100 needed for victory in 28.2 overs. This win coupled with defeats for Barrow, Davenham and Winnington Park and a draw for Trafford means that they cannot finish in the bottom two; indeed the competitive nature of this league is shown by the fact that they can still finish 6th.
Barber won the toss and had no hesitation in bowling first, the wicket lived up to its reputation as a green seamer with little to interest the batsmen. The home side got off to a good start with the bad ball hit to the boundary all too often, East being the dominant partner, but he and Lightburn paid for shots across the line and at 33 for 2 Ashley were well in the game.
Shakespeare took the cherry but appeared to have left his bowling legs on the dance floors of Ibiza and was replaced by Woods, who has never left anything in his life, especially if it comes in pastry. He rolled back the years with a 12 over spell that saw him rip out the middle order along with Gandy. Between them they took the last 7 wickets, Gandy finishing off with 3 for 1 in 6 balls. This gave Ashley 49 overs to chase exactly 100.
Gandy was judged to be leg before in the 3rd over to give the home side their only point; Barber simply blunted the varied Northwich attack, calmly resisting the pies and floaters that Hayes offered up, in the home game he had taken 8 for 13. Meanwhile Bradshaw thrashed the bowling to all parts of this large and attractive ground, taking his average in the last 5 games to 94.25. He was particularly harsh on Kimber hitting him for 3 big maximums. He reached his 50 in 58 minutes off 55 balls before hitting 8 off O’Sullivan’s two deliveries to win the match just after half past five.
Ashley will look forward to playing here in 2010 as the ground and facilities are among the best in the county, Northwich are obviously keen to progress and shouldn’t be too down hearted with a season that sees them probably finish 3rd and has their 2nd XI chasing a championship to go with their league cup win.
Trafford MV visit the Railway Field next Saturday for the final game of the season, they need a win or a very high-scoring draw to survive and Ashley will be duly respectful to the other teams at the bottom and ensure they are fully tested; Bradshaw needs 25 runs to be the first Ashley 1st XI player to score 700 runs since Steve Tyrell in 1996, the fourth year in a row he had achieved such a figure, and something he did 6 years out of 7 starting in 1990. Ashley will be looking for more runs from all their batsmen next year if they are to finish higher up the table.
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FIRST INNINGS |
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SECOND INNINGS |
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Result: Ashley won by 9 wickets |
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