A harsh lesson away at Walsden
WCC 309 for 9 (45 overs) RCC 86 all out (22.3 overs)
Scorecard here
Yet again we fielded a young and inexperienced 2nd team. Its always a hard match versus Walsden and this was no exception.
Brad won the toss and elected to bowl on a surprisingly dry and sunny day. The day started very positively with two excellent catches taken by Brad high at slip and a diving one handed effort by Sam Price in the covers. Walsden were 8 for 2 and that quickly turned into 32 for 3 when Toby Ashworth took his 2nd wicket. Unfortunately that was as good as it got for us all day.
What followed was an exceptionally hard hitting innings by the Waslden captain J Lord that put the game beyond us. In partnership with the more sedate Crabtree he moved the score quickly to 202, when Crabtree fell for 52 to Max Myers. Although wickets then fell at regular intervals Lord led his team to an impressive 309 for 9 in their 45 overs. When he eventually fell bowled by Brad he had scored 164 off just 93 balls hitting 11 sixes (leading to me spending most of the afternoon fetching balls from the Garden Centre car park and peering into the stream alongside the ground). The pick of the bowlers was Toby Ashworth with an excellent 3 for 41 off 12 overs.
It was always going to be a challenge to chase down that score but we fell woefully short. We never really got started and lost wickets at regular intervals. Only Jason Pyke (30) and Toby Ashworth (27) managed to make it to double figures.
It felt quite apt that the match ended with Walsden’s Shakir Hussain taking a hat trick to end with figures of 6 for 8.
Ramsbottom Man of the Match Toby Ashworth
Back by popular demand – Running Total of Extras Conceded* by
RCC 2nd XI 436
Opposition 2nd XIs 304
* 15 league & 1 Cup matches
