Good finish to weekend as 1sts & 2nds win

The first full weekend of cricket started off in disappointing fashion as the T20 team just didn’t get enough runs when batting first against Walsden on Friday night.

Andy McGuinness with 34 not out and Lewis Dove with 20 were the only batsmen to offer significant resistance against a good Walsden bowling attack for whom Jack Halstead starred with 3 for 15 off his four overs.

Despite an early wicket for Chesney Hughes, a target of 134 was always looking light and Walsden reached it without too much difficulty with Elliot Gilford leading the way with an unbeaten 50 off 28 balls to win by eight wickets.

Saturday saw the thirds team entertain their counterparts from Nelson at the Log Cabin.

Nelson won the toss and elected to bat in the knowledge that they batted deep. It was their lower order that ultimately took the match away from the thirds as Leo Graner and Ershad Miakhil hit 34 not out and 36 respectively to build on the foundation set by captain Miles Pemberton who hit 49.

Lewis Dove man-of-the-match

Nelson finished on 234 for 9 from their 40 overs. Stuart Leach and Iain Malone starred with the ball for the thirds with 3 for 29 and 3 for 44 respectively.

The thirds needed a good start and got to 37 before Tan Ahmed fell for eight. Unfortunately wickets fell regularly after that and they were all out for 121, with Dave Mason, Mark Crowther and Ryan Edge with 28, 25 and 18 the only ones to really get going.

After the disappointments of Friday and Saturday, Sunday recovered the situation with both the firsts and seconds beating their Rishton counterparts.

The firsts were put into bat at Rishton and with contributions throughout the order from Jack Harrison (36), Chesney Hughes (37), Evan Williams (36), Lewis Dove (63 not out), Matthew Donnelly (18) and Andy McGuinness (23) they set Rishton a very challenging target of 275. The pick of the Rishton bowlers was Sachithra Perara who took 4 for 71 from his 15 overs.

Lewis Dove was the star for the Mount in Rishton’s innings, taking the first three wickets and finishing with his first Lancashire League ‘five-for’ as Rishton were all out for 193.

Brad Boddie top scored with 67 not out while Perera and Harris Masood both got 33 but the Man of the Match went to Dove as he followed his unbeaton 63 with figures of 5 for 58 and the Mount picked up a well deserved 12 points.

The seconds won the toss at home to Rishton, and Ben Hornsby set about the bowling attack from the off.

Hornsby scored 63, ably supported by Leigh Dickinson (32), Owen Halstead (38), Matthew Senior 29 and Stuart Leach (19) as they were all out for 217 in the 45th over.

Luke Eddleston starred with the ball for Rishton with 5 for 49.

Lancs U-13 captain Evan Dobson opened for Rishton and played a very mature innings while Alex Bullen was taking wickets at the other end.

Bullen took the first five wickets but while Dobson and Daniel Briggs were in Rishton still had an outside chance.

Once Dobson had been snared by a mystery ball from Hornsby for 35 and young Tom Nuttall had bowled Briggs for a belligerent 36, the Mount were able to mop the tail up and win by 55 runs, with Bullen taking the bowling honours with 5 for 66.

ROB KILVINGTON (GCC chairman)

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