Hamer Cup Round 1 Preview By Graham Hardcastle
By Graham Hardcastle
Captain Matt Hargraves says it would be “amazing” if Astley Bridge could create history by winning back-to-back Hamer Cup titles this summer.
Bridge’s current squad could leave quite the legacy if they were able to win both the last ever Bolton League cup crown and the first one to be played in the Anthony Axford North West Cricket League.
Settle are also chasing a similar goal having won the Ribblesdale League’s last ever Ramsbottom Cup crown in 2022.
But, with the Hamer Cup, which starts on Sunday, having been retained as the first-team knockout trophy in the new NWCL, it would arguably be even more special if Hargreaves and company could triumph later this summer.
“It would be something really special for the club, and I’d like to think I can lead the team to another cup win,” said Hargraves.
“There are different sides in the mix this year – and plenty of good ones – so it will be a different look competition. But the aim is definitely to retain the cup. That would be lovely.”
Astley Bridge benefit from a first round tie this Sunday, getting their defence underway in round two on June 4.
Last year’s final win over Westhoughton at Farnworth’s Bridgeman Park was achieved in some style – by 83 runs as they comfortably defended a total of 252 all out to win their first Hamer Cup title in 92 years.
Yasir Rashid was the captain who lifted the trophy, with Hargraves having since taken over.
“Everyone last year pulled together,” he said. “The senior players who have been around the club for a number years stepped up. The occasion took over, and the players I think understood that we’d not won the cup for a number of the years and this was our chance.
“It being the last Hamer Cup in the Bolton League, it made it a bit more of a special occasion. The lads stood up and took the game in their hands. It was just a great day in general.
“On paper, a lot of people probably didn’t have us as favourites. But anything could happen, and it was a convincing win in the end.”
That day sub professional Asher Zaidi scored a century and took three wickets.
This season, their pro will be popular South African all-rounder Lesiba Ngoepe, who has made an impressive start to life at Sharples Park to help Bridge to two wins from four games and also get involved in coaching the juniors.
“Lesiba got a hundred against Read and a five-for against Earby,” said wicketkeeper Hargraves. “He’s a super well liked guy. He’s a very good player and also a really keen and confident coach.”
Hargraves also heaped praise on Ngoepe’s compatriot and fellow all-rounder Ulli Bronkhorst, the club’s 18-year-old overseas amateur, and believes the strength of domestic players can help the overseas duo fly.
The Anthony Axford North West Cricket League’s premier cup competition kicks off this Sunday, with Read taking a watching brief for now following a first round bye.
But when they do get going in round two on June 4, they are confident of going one step further than last year’s final defeat to Settle in the Ribblesdale League’s last ever Ramsbottom Cup.
In 2019, they won that competition by beating Brinscall in the final having been beaten at the last hurdle by Whalley in 2017.
“We’ll be throwing everything at this competition,” said captain Will Wrathall. “I don’t see us as just a cup side, but we certainly seem to do well in the cup. We’re always there and thereabouts.
“We always try to win every game, but I do feel like we’re a tough force at home. And if we get a good run with the draw, it doesn’t matter who we play at home we back ourselves to beat them.”
Last year’s final defeat was, says Wrathall, “a pretty tough pill to take”.
Chasing 168, hosts Settle had to recover from 87-4 to win by two wickets.
“There wasn’t any stage where we thought, ‘We’re out of this’. We were in it right until the end,” recalled the skipper.
Read arrested a winless start to the new NWCL Premiership season on Saturday with a convincing six-wicket home win over Whalley as they chased 159.
Number five Wrathall top-scored with 43 not out to end a run of three defeats to start the summer, two of those coming away to sides with 100 percent records – Farnworth Social Circle and Little Lever.
“We’ve had a pro get 114 against us (Astley Bridge’s Lesiba Ngoepe) and another get 93 (FSC’s Jameel Stuart),” reflected Wrathall. “We saw that as the difference in the early stages.
“Now I feel like we can get on a good run of wins, because even though we’re a young squad we have a lot of depth. We have one lad who’s 40 and the next oldest is Mini Bhada, our pro, at 27.”
On the signing of all-rounder Bhada from Haslingden, Wrathall said: “We got let down with a visa on another pro, and we know Mini well. We’d signed his brother Zi about four weeks prior to that. So it seemed like the perfect fit.”
Wrathall’s description of a young squad down at Whalley Road begs the question of whether they have any potential stars of the future.
“We’re all pretty much in our early twenties in the first-team,” he said. “But we do have a young 13-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Ollie Watson in the seconds, who I know is going to be very good.
“He lives for cricket more than anybody I’ve ever met. The hours he puts in, it’s ridiculous.”
