CHORLEY HOSPITALS V OUTCASTS

BOLTON SCHOOL – THURSDAY 17 MAY 2018

OUTCASTS WON BY 9 WICKETS

After heavy defeats in the first two games of the season, Outcasts travelled to Bolton School to face our old friends Chorley Hospitals on a gloriously sunny evening. Skipper Chris won the toss and invited Chorley to bat first. Openers Grundy and Chilton set about the Outcasts’ bowling with gusto, with Chilton in particular giving Kyran Noone some serious hammer. Jeff Stanton stemmed the flow when he removed Grundy, caught at point by Ted Noone. Nevertheless, aided by three lots of 4 wides, Chorley’s score stood at a worrying 46 after only six overs. A big total looked to be on the cards.

However, after Chilton had to retire at 28, tight bowling and some energetic fielding started to get the Outcasts back into the game. Chris Truesdale had Hunt caught by Dave Walsh off his first ball, and Les bowled Fernside, before Chris had Chapple caught and bowled. Chorley’s innings closed on 88 for 4, with only 42 runs coming from the last 14 overs. Particular credit goes to Jeff, Derek, Chris and Les who kept a tight rein on the bowling, and Raj and Kyran who stopped a number of likely boundaries.

Steve Potter and Paul Mooney opened for Outcasts, and proceeded without too much difficulty, although Paul survived a sharp caught behind chance. Steve in particular was timing the ball sweetly, and soon had to retire at 25. Paul was joined by James Donnelly, who was annoyed with himself when he holed out to Chilton off the bowling of Brown for 5. David Walsh came in and kept the tempo going, as Paul also reached the retirement limit after hitting some characteristically belligerent boundaries. Raj had brought the scores level when he was harshly adjudged LBW, allowing Jeff Stanton to hit the winning boundary to seal an Outcasts win by nine wickets with five overs to spare.

So after a downbeat start to the season, this comfortable victory left the Outcasts in a much more positive frame of mind, indeed as Les pointed out, this was our first win before the Dorset tour since 2014! Next up is our first home game of the season, at Winton against Rammy Dads.