Friday night feast followed by Sunday roasting
Ramsbottom 1st Team v Middleton 1st team – T20 (A) 25 June 2021
MCC 106 for 8 (20 overs) RCC 110 for (10.2 overs)
Scorecard here
For those Rams supporters who braved the artic conditions at Middleton on Friday night, we were treated to our best T20 performance of the season. This was a winner take all game for a place in the quarter finals of the competition. Middleton batted first and the Rams were right on it from the word go with Clarkey bowling a rare as rocking horse droppings wicket maiden for the first over. This brought the home professional James Price to the wicket. As the leading run scorer in all competitions in the league this was the wicket that mattered and there was undisguised joy amongst our players when Pykey trapped him LBW for 5 in the 4th over. From then on we kept the pressure on with tight bowling and excellent fielding which restricted the opposition to 106 for 8 at the end of their allotted 20 overs.
In T20 terms this is not a challenging total but even so nobody could have foreseen the way Clarkey and Brad set about the task. The Middleton bowlers must have been shellshocked as they were smashed all round the ground as 13 fours and 4 sixes were scored in our opening partnership of 104 which was only ended when Clarkey was caught on the edge off the last ball of the 10th over. Two balls later and the game was over.
Amateur Man of the Match was Jacob Clarke for a magnificent 63, 2 wickets for 13 and an excellent diving catch.
Ramsbottom 1st Team v Clitheroe 1st Team (H) 27 June
RCC 99 all out (33.2 overs) CCC 101 for 6 (28.2 overs)
Scorecard here
Sunday brought the visit of high flying Clitheroe to Acre Bottom. We knew this was going to be tough against a quality bowling attack but once again our batting let us down. Too many loose strokes were evident in our dismissals and hardly anybody seemed to want to graft it out resulting in us being all out for 99 with over 16 overs left to bat. Brad Fielding top scored with 32 before falling to a bad shot and Harry Caton did show the right attitude but ran out of partners.
What made matters worse was that Clitheroe lost 6 wickets before passing our total and they really seemed to struggle, particularly against Josh Dentith and Dan Pyke. If we had been able to post another 30 runs who knows what may have happened.
We have now reached the half way point of the season and stand third from bottom in the league. There have been occasions when we have shown ourselves capable of challenging the best but others where our batting has been poor. Occupation of the crease and batting out our overs is crucial because I think we have the bowling potential to turn any team over. I have every confidence that we can turn the corner and improve our position in the league over the last half of the season.
Amateur Man of the Match was Josh Dentith for an excellent 8 over spell which earned him a 2 for 14 return.
Footnote – it would be wrong not to mention Simon Hanson who has left the Club for personal reasons. Simon has been at Rammy since 2018 and has always given off his best on the field. We wish him every success whilst playing for Lostock and if he wishes to come back to Acre Bottom in the future he would be welcomed with open arms.
