Ramsbottom produced probably their best performance in the field yet struggled to beat a plucky Todmorden side despite seemingly cruising to victory at one stage.
Rammy Come out on Top
With Tod taking first knock on what looked a good batting deck it was important to put the ball in the right areas and with the exception of one over from Matt Burdaky – when The Bird’s feathers were slightly ruffled, we managed to do so. Jack Wynn set the early standard by bowling at pace and taking the scalp of the opposition professional – Silva in his second over. From then on, all the bowlers used by skipper Parton showed great skill and accuracy which restricted the opposition’s ability to score quickly. The bowling was backed up by excellent fielding with both Jack Wynn and Simon Hanson taking good catches. Even the legendary Jon Fielding (Trig) who had dropped every single chance in the warm up managed to cling on to a nick in the slips. With this kind of performance in the field it was no surprise that Tod were rolled over for 119. All four bowlers produced excellent economical performances.
Everyone thought the target was well within the Rams reach and despite losing JJ Fielding in the first over, skipper Parton took the attack to Tod and in particular to his oppositions skipper, Andrew Sutcliffe before being caught behind of Collins. The RCC Professional Linde came in and was in belligerent mood smashing the ball to all parts of the ground and losing two balls in the process. Along with Simon Hanson the pair took the score to 72 in no time before Hanson was well caught behind.
At 90 for 3 it looked all over but credit to Todmorden, they came back fighting and thanks to some excellent bowling by Rasool and Professional Silva they reduced Rammy to 106 for 8 and looked favourites to win. However Alex Olpin and Jack Wynn, both naturally aggressive players, bit the bullet and knowing they had plenty of overs to play with, dug in and slowly but surely took us to our target which was achieved by an all run four.
This was a hard fought victory – but credit has to go to Todmorden for not giving up when they seemed well out of the game. Also praise has to be given to Pinn and Wynnie for getting us past the winning line by showing great application.
We now travel to Todmorden in the coming weeks for a quarter-final Worsley Cup tie.