Grimmy’s Gamble Pays Off
Ramsbottom 1st Team v Todmorden 1st team – (H) 17 July 2021
RCC 178 for 7 (45 overs) TCC 131 all out (48.2 overs)
Scorecard here
Saturday’s game against Todmorden was played on the hottest day of the year so far and in front of a crowd that was added to by several ex-players (Curly not included) at the annual reunion.
The track and the field in general looked in magnificent condition and on winning the toss Ramsbottom had no hesitation in batting first. Twenty minute later we were all contemplating an early finish as we had lost our first three wickets with only 3 runs on the board thanks to some real quality bowling from the Tod professional Murasingh and amateur Collins. Consolidation was needed and came in the form of our pro Daryn and newly promoted Michael Howarth. Scoring was slow at first but in the conditions bowling changes had to be made and runs started to flow more freely with both batsmen growing in confidence. This was Daryn at his best, building his innings carefully but making sure he dispatched the loose delivery. Michael provided the perfect foil and when he eventually fell for 27 the pair had added 90 valuable runs. With 10 overs remaining we obviously needed to accelerate but Daryn is the master of this situation and ably backed by a run a ball 28 from Harry Caton he took our score to 176 before being well taken on the boundary for a magnificent 94.
A score of 178 looked fairly challenging but far from unobtainable and when the Todmorden openers raced into the 40s off only 8 overs we looked in trouble. Daryn then achieved a double breakthrough by having Sutcliffe well caught at short cover by Brad Fielding and in his next over having the talented Abbas beautifully stumped by Harry Caton (a decision which he obviously didn’t like and reacted to in a manner that upset several of the church goers in the crowd) The ex-England player Chris Schofield then joined the Tod skipper Andrew Sutcliffe. Both seemed content with staying at the crease and taking advantage of the good start. This resulted in the scoring rate reducing considerably thanks to some tight bowling from Daryn, Trig (recalled at the 11th hour) and Josh Dentith. Nevertheless the score mounted and despite Sutcliffe surviving a big shout for caught behind off Codge the score had reached 101 before the newly introduced skipper Grimmy bowled Schofield trying to raise the momentum with a rather injudicious shot. The Tod pro then joined his skipper at the crease and in the few balls he had faced looked in good touch. The match changing incident came with the score on 108 when Murasingh was “sold down the swanny” by his skipper and run out by a couple of yards. To add insult to injury Sutcliffe then holed out to Daryn on the boundary off Grimmy on the same score. By this time the visitors had fallen behind the clock and the remaining batsmen threw themselves on their swords hitting out and being caught with some fine catches, in particular to the spectacular overhead diving effort from young Codge which brought the crowd to its feet. When Daryn took a simple return catch with the score on 131 we had pulled off our third consecutive victory and considerably eased our league position. Grimmy finished with 4 for 14 and Daryn 4 for 27 but they were ably assisted by Trig and Denty who bowled very tightly. Our fielding was also much improved on the previous week.
Amateur Man of the Match goes to Grimmy for this 4 wickets, catch and run out but special mention goes to Michael and Harry for their conflicting styles but equally important innings. It wold also be amiss not to mention the champagne moment of the game when Owen Codge took that memorable catch.
All the ex-players had a very enjoyable day and our thanks go to John Ramsbottom who sponsored it and Maurice Haslam for getting in touch with everybody. Unfortunately Maurice had been “pinged” and could not attend the game.
