Early rain reduced the game to 35 overs a side and having won the toss the home side (Walsden) put us in to bat on what looked to be a testing wicket.
On a small ground a score of 200 plus was essential in view of the strength of the oppositions batting line-up.
With this in mind skipper – Tom Parton and JJ Fielding began the innings with a real purpose and positive frame of mind, dispatching anything loose to the boundary. However just as the partnership had reached 50 in the 7th over Fielding fell – caught in the deep. This brought our in-form Pro to the wicket (Linde) and he immediately started to strike the ball with purpose. However when he had reached 8 he went for a big hit, got a leading edge and holed out on the boundary edge. Then, to make matters worse, Tom holed out to the long off boundary having scored 39 and having looked back to the ominous form of 2018.
This resulted in the Walsden Pro getting amongst the middle order. With some poor shot selection putting us under pressure – only Simon Hanson looked comfortable, albeit even he got involved in a silly run out of Jack Wynn after the pair had staged a bit of a mini revival.
A total of 154 did not seem enough to challenge the home side but credit to the lads as they got stuck in and although the figures probably don’t reflect it, they plugged away and in fact at 69 for 4, Rammy were in with a chance.
But for a couple of difficult chances which were missed, the Walsden Pro and big hitting amateur Gale rode their luck with Gale smashing some monster sixes on the small ground to win the game comfortably.
This was a frustrating loss in view of the start we had but more so in the manner that several batsmen threw their wickets away.
We move onto Crompton next week at Acre Bottom in what looks like an intriguing match-up.