Worsley Cup Match Report Ramsbottom 1st XI v Lowerhouse 1st XI – (H) 10 July 2022
LCC 209 for 6 (50 overs) RCC 210 for 4 (47.2 overs)
Scorecard here and recording of livestream here
Captain Fantastic
Having played, managed and been ardent fan of the club for many years I have been privileged to see many fine knocks by Rammy amateurs. Indeed quite a few of the people who made those knocks were present at Acre Bottom on Sunday and all were in agreement that Grimmy’s innings was the best they had ever seen.
He was on the field for 97 overs of the game in extremely hot conditions and faced a Lowerhouse attack that did very little wrong and yet made an incredible 124 not out, consisting of 15 fours and 2 sixes to see the Rams though to the final of the Worsley Cup where we will face Rochdale at Acre Bottom.
Lowerhouse won the toss and elected to bat on what looked like a belter of a wicket. Taking advantage of some loose bowling they raced to 25 before Jake had Frankie Haasbroek caught behind. They then took the score to 43 before Josh Dentith produced a good delivery to have the dangerous Ben Heap well caught at slip by Sen.
Our spinners, backed up by some good ground fielding were the able to put a check on the scoring rate. When Dan Pyke was introduced into the attack in place of Sen he kept the pressure on and with score on 71 we got a lucky breakthrough, Joe Martin being given run out when he clearly looked to have made his ground. Only 4 runs were added when Pykey produced a beauty to bowl the Lowerhouse pro Steven Parry to put Rammy on top.
We all know the Lowerhouse batting line up is a long one and this was proved by the experienced Charlie Cottam, who along with Dean Barlow put on a century partnership taking the score to 178 before Barlow was run out for 48 thanks to a direct hit from Pykey. Three runs later Charlie was well caught by Grimmy off the returning Jake Walker for a fine 52. It was then left to Lancashire League legend Chris Bleazard and young Tom Walker to take the score to 209 at the end of the innings.
Josh Dentith was the pick of the Rammy bowlers with figures of 1 for 26 off his 10 overs followed by Dan Pyke with 1 for 19 off 6 overs and Sen 0 for 31 off 10 overs. Our bowlers had been backed up by some excellent ground fielding with Brad Fielding doing a great job on boundary patrol.
A target of 210 was going to be a tough task against the Lowerhouse bowlers even on such good wicket and Rammy got off to the worst possible start when Jonny Dack was bowled off the 2nd ball of the innings.
This brought Grimmy to the wicket to join TP. Once again Tom looked in good nick so it was a bit of a blow when he was adjudged lbw with the score on 17. Our pro Sen then came to the wicket and a lot was banking on him and the skipper. They worked very hard against some tight bowling and good fielding from the opposition and took the score to 63 before Sen played on to a ball that kept low off Paddy Martin.
The Lowerhouse supporters, who had been raucous throughout, felt this could be the end of the game but they were proved to be wrong.
Grimmy joined by the Pin, decided he had to do something about the situation. He picked up his own scoring rate while allowing Alex to absorb as much of the bowling as possible. The pair put on 52 although Alex’s contribution was only 13 off 57 balls he had seen off a lot of the overs of the main bowlers.
Enter Harry Caton. I don’t know what it is with this young man but he seems to have the ability to re-energise his batting partner and it certainly worked with Grimmy. I must stress that Lowerhouse bowling did not go to pieces. It just seemed that whatever they bowled at Grimmy he had an answer to it and with Harry cleverly swapping the strike runs started to flow freely.
Even when Grimmy reached his well deserved century there was still a lot to do but with our skipper in such good nick, backed up by the bundle of energy that is Harry, we passed the winning line in the 48th over.
Amateur Man of the Match – Grimmy. Whoever was on the ground on Sunday whether you are a Rammy or Lowerhouse supporter or a neutral you will have been privileged to have witnessed one of the finest knocks by an amateur in the Lancashire League.
