Cricket: Middleton bid Werneth farewell

Middleton Cricket Club

After being rivals for 107 years Middleton bid a fond farewell to Werneth CC with a resounding victory at Towncroft on Saturday.

Middleton at one point were struggling on eight runs and two wickets down, with both the professional and the captain back in the pavilion.

Enter Grant Jones and Harry Gee who with a 120 run partnership turned the innings around and left Middleton in a commanding position. 

Both Jones and Gee, realising the enormity and responsibility of the position they found themselves in, batted more conservatively than they normally would as they saw off the dangerous opening bowling pair Hodson and Taylor. Their shot selection and placement was perfect as they offered zero chances, and indeed treated spinners Abdul Sattar and Callum Porteous with the same respect.

The scoreboard was ticking over nicely as the left handed Gee dovetailed nicely with the right handed Jones, each finding the boundary on seven occasions with Jones also hitting an enormous six.

Werneth captain Andy Walker rotated his bowlers further, giving Torofday and Muzaffar a bowl and eventually bringing himself on in an attempt to break the partnership.

Eventually, with the score on 126, Gee was caught attempting to push the score along and Jones was joined by the cultured bat Zain Tahir and they moved the score nicely to 150.

With plenty of wickets and overs remaining, Grant attempted to unselfishly move the score along with an enormous six over mid-off but was caught on the boundary by Werneth stalwart and all rounder Ian Dronsfield.

There followed a mini collapse as Rhys Tierney got the ball of the day  from Ali Muzaffar; Reece Jones was unfortunate when given out lbw as he looked well forward and the ball high; and Pete Foden was caught.

It was left to promoted second teamers Mo Shahid and Danny Royle to steady the innings. This they did with a magnificent partnership of 40, running like whippets between the wickets.

The Werneth batsmen struggled from the off with Mike Pritchard following up his useful knock at the end of Middleton's innings with the early wicket of Abdul Ghaffar adjudged lbw to an 80 mph straight ball.

Professional Chris Williams had talented opener Callum Porteous caught behind by Foden.

Werneth pro Matt Taylor lead a recovery of sorts scoring 34, however with both Williams and Pritchard firing on all cylinders the batsmen at the other end were slowly being dismissed as the pace duo took six wickets between them.

Spinner Mo Shahid and medium pacer Harry Gee were added to the attack and took two wickets each.

Werneth struggled to 69 all out to give a comprehensive win for the Middleton.

Just as the first team were celebrating the second team were returning from Austerlands and a similar comprehensive victory for Middleton with the hosts being dismissed for 67.

Mark Buckley took five wickets and Hughes and Harris got two apiece.

A quickfire 39 from Leighton Le Carpentier and double figures from Hussain Shahid brought a quick finish.

The third team comprehensively beat Friarmere on Sunday dismissing them for 104.

The pick of the bowlers was Addison Holland with a superb 6-16.

Also taking wickets were Stanley, Aikenhead, Brown and Collins.

A superb 48 from Le Carpentier saw the Middleton home.