Tricky Away Days

With recent poor performances now a distant memory, an away trip to Christleton, the setting of an important victory the previous year, was exactly what was needed to heighten spirits and give the Middlewich faithful something to be proud of.

Middlewich won the toss and elected to bowl first, taking to the field with only 10 men to begin with as Stuart Price finished his duties at the Royal Mail. Young Sam ‘Bothered’ Brothers took the new ball with LDT and soon the hosts were 31-2 following a flurry of chances and boundaries in an eventful first 10 overs. In stepped the leading run scorer in the league, Mitchell Renwick who showed us just why he held that mantle with a fluent 53 from 59 deliveries that was eventually out thought by all rounder, Stephen Bliss who returned figures of 11 overs 3-45. The visitors regularly picked up wickets and with the Swans now struggling on 114-6, courtesy of a brace of wickets from Kieran Boyle (7-30-2) Middlewich had a perfect opportunity to stem the run flow and ensure a relatively low chase in the second innings. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be as Christleton issued a resilient 7th wicket standing, taking the score to 173 before the deadlock was broken and a further brace of wickets left the home side 174-9. A frustrating and intuitive last wicket stand, full of reverse hooks, sweeps and all manner of shots never before seen in the Lords coaching manual pestered the scoreboard up to a competitive 217 before rain and a declaration halted proceedings.

Courtesy of some drizzle, Middlewich’s innings was slightly delayed in starting and by the time Jamie Williams and Richard Clorley were able to take to the middle a total of 4 overs had been lost to the weather. Creepy departed in the first over, bringing young Boyle to the crease who together with Jambo produced a solid partnership of 54 before Williams (35) was adjudged LBW. Middlewich began to lose regular wickets, despite some positive strokes and were left stranded at 127-9 before seasoned veterans; Stuart Price and Patrick Hurley were together at the crease to go about rescuing some much needed pride from a varied batting display. The pair added 88 for the last wicket in a sublime counter attacking effort which eventually succumbed to a change of bowling and a well judged catch to remove Hurley (31) leaving Price on 48*. Middlewich fell just 2 runs short with little over an over to go.

Moment of the day

Not a moment as such, but few would argue the fight shown by Hurley and Price for their last wicket stand, including 14 boundaries, so close to securing victory but undoubtedly a performance which has proved to most that Middlewich have the depth to perform at this level.

Middlewich took 8 points from this nail-biting fixture, an improvement on previous weeks but not enough to lift them out of the relegation zone.

Captains Corner

“We were all aware of how important this fixture was to keeping our survival hopes alive, the task just got a lot harder and picking up points is something we must now do as we approach the half way mark. There are a number of games coming up we know we can gain good performances from so really now it’s up to the players to start performing consistently”

This weekend, Oxton made the long trip up to the Croxton Oval, first ball from 1pm.