Match-Day 11 Weekly Round-Up By Graham Hardcastle
By Graham Hardcastle
A quick glance at the Anthony Axford North West Cricket League Premiership table will tell you Brinscall are struggling this summer. Delve a little deeper, however, and it’s clear this is a club who are thriving.
Those at School Lane will tell you their haul of two wins from 11 games, ensuring they sit third bottom, is down to their failure to get opposition professionals out as well as lacking fortune. This absolutely proves those points.
On Saturday, defending a 194 target, they had visitors Farnworth 50-4 before former Sri Lanka Test all-rounder Milinda Siriwardana steered a successful chase with 71.
On Sunday, when healthily placed at home to Astley Bridge with the visitors 95-4 after 27 overs, rain intervened. It was the day’s only abandoned match.
“We were in a brilliant position 15 overs in on Saturday,” said captain Pete Berry. “We were 90-odd for one. But Farnworth dragged it back and showed what a good side does in those situations. We’ve still got to learn that.
“Without getting the violin out, a few things have gone against us as well. But once that luck turns, I’m sure we’ll get on a run. Equally, we’ve played a lot of very good sides. Fingers crossed, our schedule gets a lot easier.”
A personal interjection here. This writer – a Brinscall native – played a handful of seasons there in the mid-noughties, coinciding with their latter years in the Chorley and District League and the move to the Ribblesdale League structure in 2006.
An average league cricketer at best who failed to build on Bolton League junior promise and has since zipped up the kitbag, I had some reasonable first-team performances.
There’s no way I’d have got near Brinscall’s current first team.
It’s just a small pointer as to how far Brinscall have come – further in my opinion than any other club currently in the top tier of the North West Cricket League.
They have held their own since heading into the senior Ribblesdale League in 2014 and finished last year in an encouraging sixth.
“We’ve very much come from a village team to a club who now signs a professional (South African Jon Hinrichsen) and is competing with clubs who’ve been established for years and years,” said Berry.
“The also ground looks amazing, and the pitch plays so well. You’d used to say that if you get 100, you’d be in the game. Now 200 is eminently chaseable.
“To me, one of the major successes is that two years ago it was borderline whether we’d put out a second team. Now, the seconds are going nicely. They’ve won four games with a variety of lads contributing and not just (captain) Andrew Scambler.
“There are a couple starting to flit between both sides. They either come to us and aren’t out of place or they go back to the seconds and perform.”
In truth, you could offer some clubs the progression path of Brinscall and they wouldn’t want it – happy instead to stand still. So where did the ambition of 10 years ago come from?
Berry added: “Players like Liam Winstanley, Phil Lowe and Sam MacLachlan were top or there and thereabouts every year, and they wanted that step up. They were good enough.
“Liam, look at him now. He’s still going strong at whatever age he is – probably 75, isn’t he!
“He opened the batting on Saturday for the first time this year and looked a class apart (59).
“The club’s view was that we only get better by playing at a higher level.
Josh Gent’s side maintained their 100 percent record chasing a revised 118 total from 27 overs to win at Cherry Tree by eight wickets. Their 10-point haul moved them to 124 – 23 points clear of Ribblesdale Wanderers, who have nine wins.
Indian amateur Nipun Gaikwad starred with 5-43 from 15 overs as Cherry Tree posted 132-6 from 39 overs before opening their routine chase with 36.
All 11 games were rain-affected, but only one was abandoned – Brinscall versus Astley Bridge. Salesbury and Farnworth Social Circle were also rained off last Sunday.
Ribblesdale Wanderers won at Oswaldtwistle Immanuel (105-3 in 35.2 overs) by seven wickets chasing a revised 107 in 25 overs. Opener and captain Mack Spencer made 40 and Andrew Needham a more aggressive unbeaten 41.
Sixth-placed Lostock were the only winners to claim the maximum 12-point haul by bowling their opposition out – everyone else 10.
Lostock’s sixth win was achieved by eight wickets at home to Earby as they comfortably chased a revised 125 well inside the allotted 45 overs having bowled Earby out for 132. Pakistani professional Akbar Ur Rehman claimed a superb 5-12 from seven overs before opener Connor Hicklin’s unbeaten 77.
Eagley (98 points) in third suffered a home loss to Settle (146-4 after 35 overs) by five runs. Chasing a revised 182, they fell short at 176-8 in 34 overs.
Captain Will Davidson was Settle’s star with 5-31 from seven overs after Sri Lankan pro Ashen Silva’s unbeaten 57. Eagley slipped from 124-2.
Milinda Siriwardana, another Sri Lankan pro, hit a superb uneaten 103 off 64 balls with six sixes as hosts Farnworth (96 points in fourth) chased a revised 209 in 36 overs to beat Feniscowles by eight wickets. He shared an unbroken 187 for the third wicket with opener Alex Rodzoch (70) from 22-2 after Feniscowles 172-3 in 36 overs.
Padiham’s recent form is rivalling Little Lever’s, them winning their seventh successive league game – by nine wickets at Baxenden. They’re fifth, two points behind Farnworth.
Pro Jack Edgar’s brilliant new ball 6-29 from 14 overs reduced hosts Baxenden to 91-9 in the 36th over before Jonathan Whitehead’s 60 not out ensured a nine-wicket win chasing 92.
Kearsley won at Read by 65 runs to jump to 10th. South Africa pro Jono Bird’s blistering 137 off 74 balls with 10 sixes underpinned 290-6 in 37 overs before spirited Read (225-9) fell short of 291 in 30.
Tonge and Barnoldswick, both chasing top-12 finishes, won at home to Whalley and away at Blackrod by 44 runs and three wickets.
Tonge won having posted 178-2 in 38 overs. Openers Jack Hancock (67) and Sam Hardman (59) impressed before Hasib Patel’s three-for helped limit Whalley to 144-9 chasing 189 in 32.
Barnoldswick beat Blackrod (113-5 inside 28 overs) chasing 141 in 45. South African amateur Justin Gilliland opened with a quick-fire 96.
Brinscall Courtesy of Graham Hardcastle
