Albion v Outcasts
Astley Bridge Cricket Club
Thursday, 7th July 2016
Albion
won by 19 runs
Outcasts' Batting Once Again Their Achilles' Heel
Few Outcasts journeyed to the Astley Bridge
ground, Bolton, on Thursday afternoon, 7th July, with high expectations of a
game. The weather earlier in the week
had been inclement, with lots of rain, and many parts of Greater Manchester
experienced prolonged downpours around lunchtime on the day of the match. One or two took to texts and email to ascertain
whether the game was still on or not, but the messages came back that the pitch
was playable, the forecast was for better weather later in the day, and the
game was still scheduled to go ahead. And
so it proved, with the ground showing little signs of the battering it had
taken.
Albion batted first and Outcasts achieved an
early breakthrough when Les removed opener L. Cregan, cleaned bowled, with only
6 on the board. Freestone and Threadgold
then took the score to 25 before the latter was run out. Freestone was joined at the crease by Mills,
and these two proceeded to put together a partnership that was ultimately to
win the game for the hosts. Both
retired, undefeated, and the third wicket to fall was that of M. Cregan, with
the score on 70, bowled by "a
beauty from Scott to the left hander that pitched on 4th stump, nipped back and
clipped the top of off" (it says
here).
Moon came and went, retired hurt, for six,
before Chris Truesdale picked up a couple of late wickets for a modest 6 runs off
his two overs. With Albion on 79 after
12 overs, Outcasts did remarkably well to contain them to only an additional 21
runs off the remaining 8. Nevertheless,
a total of 100 looked a tall order for Outcasts' fragile batting on a pitch
that wasn't the easiest to score off.
In truth, Outcasts' innings never really got
going against a tight attack, and only 34 runs had been scored off the first 10
overs, with three front line batsman already back in the pavilion. Relative newcomer Jeff Stanton and Scott put
together a partnership which helped to give some respectability to the
Outcasts' reply, but a final score of 81 off their twenty overs left the
visitors some distance short of what was required.
No sooner had the players got back to the
changing rooms than the heavens opened and the rain that had threatened for
much of the Outcasts' innings, lashed across the ground. Given the weather on the day, we were very
fortunate to get a game in at all.
CW
21 July 2016
