Ramsbottom picked up their second twelve point win of the season thanks to a fantastic all round display from sub professional Daryn Smit plus find out how our Junior Teams got on.
Norden CC XI vs RamsbottomCC XI
SMIT DOES , WHAT HE DOES BEST!
Having lost the toss and Norden electing to field first – the Rammy openers (Tom Parton and JJ Fielding) soon found out how difficult the pitch was going to be as the Norden attack got the ball to swing and bounce right from the start.
Displaying patience and waiting for the bad ball to punish they took the score to 29 before TP was trapped LBW.
The normally rock steady Simon Hanson then joined JJ and looked to be in his normal mind set until he played an untypical rash stroke and was caught at short cover. This seemed to set the tone for a series of poor shots which led to the demise of most of our middle order batsmen with only Rehan Udwadia being slightly unlucky. JJ Fielding, who looked in good touch inexplicably went for a big slog and was clean bowled to start this series of indiscipline dismissals which saw us reduced to 107 for 8.
Fortunately Smit was still at the crease and playing his normal patient innings waiting for the bad delivery which he put away for runs.
All he needed was someone to play a sensible innings and stay with him. Enter Owen Collinge who showed his colleagues what was required as he defended his wicket with Great Spirit and allowed Smit to build up the score.Their forty run partnership was to prove invaluable and only ended when Collinge was run out to a direct throw from the deep. This brought in the last man who showed some spirit hitting the Norden pro for 4 before Daryn holed out on the boundary for an excellent 72 to end our innings.
A total of 154 was always going to be challenging but Norden got off to a flyer with the classy Tolley smashing two sixes from free hits as young Jack Wynn overstepped on consecutive deliveries. This could have seriously affected some young bowlers but Wynn roared backed in and bowled at real pace to send back the top three batsmen in a terrific opening six over spell.
He was replaced by Smit and with Fielding – both of which caused problems at the other end, Norden started to struggle. Smit started to pick up wickets at regular intervals and Norden soon found themselves eight down.
Enter Skipper Hashim Malik who with some belligerent hitting looked to have turned the tide in the home teams favour before a couple of wickets from Smit saw us home by 19 runs. Smit returned with figures of 6-26 to cap a remarkable day from this Rammy legend but Jack Wynn’s 3-33 and Fielding’s1-27 were important contributors to our success.
What we have to learn from this game is that the batsmen have to value their wickets and support their partner at the crease. With far too many rash shots we could easily have lost .
Ramsbottom Junior Foundation
Last week’s U11s game at home vs Egerton had to be called off due to rain. Typical! After a lovely spell of weather over Easter, the skies opened 1 hour before the game with thunder and lightning as well.
This week sees the U15s start their season away to Euxton on Wed 1st 6:15pm. This is our joint team with Edenfield carefully named “Rammyfield”. Other possible team name combinations were quickly discarded!
U13s start their home season on Monday 29th vs Rochdale in the league. We welcome last season’s U13 East league winners to Acre Bottom at 6:15pm.
Finally Our U11s host Elton on Weds 1st May at 6:15pm.
Bar / TV Sports and cafe open throughout as always.