Cricket: Heywood pay heavy price against Roe Green

Heywood were batted out of a Greater Manchester Premier League game for the second successive week.

Roe Green rattled up an imposing 284-5 on their distinctive Worsley area ground after the visitors had won the toss and elected to field in sultry conditions.

The decision may have been influenced by losing top order batsman Danny Pawson owing to a hand injury sustained in a midweek domestic accident.

It meant that Heywood were again facing a mountain to climb, and they eventually folded on 168 with seven overs remaining, to leave them staring relegation in the face for a second time in the three seasons of the Greater Manchester set-up.

Denton West are almost certainly doomed, but Heywood are second from bottom on 37 points, Edgworth have 38, Greenmount 39, Egerton 41, Woodhouses 43 and Denton St Lawrence 44. Four teams go down.

Heywood have three of those teams immediately above them to play, as well as Denton West, out of the last six remaining League games so their fate is still clearly in their own hands.

Roe Green based their imposing total on an imposing opening stand of 134 between New Zealand professional Dan Cooper and Jordan Stephens, before the latter was stumped for 65.

Cooper, however, went on to complete his century, only falling for 108 with the total 234, and further solid contributions pushed their total towards the 300 mark.

Tom McQuinn and Jack Morley claimed a couple of wickets apiece as skipper Travis Townsend went through his main bowling options – with the exception of Andy Dawson.

It meant that Heywood had to get off to a good start in reply if they were to have any chance of overhauling the hefty total, which they did in the shape of Bobby Cross and Andy Kerr.

They reached 65 without any serious alarms, but once left-arm spinner Andy Hough, well-known to the opposition from his days at Clifton, was introduced into the attack the picture began to change.

Hough had Cross caught at slip for 40, although Kerr did go on to complete an accomplished half-century before being trapped lbw by Luke Williams with the total 100.

That paved the way for Hough to run through the Heywood middle order and finish with 6-70 from his 15 overs as he claimed the further wickets of Townsend, Sean Burrill, Jack Morley, Wes Hunt and Mikey Grogan.

With Williams accounting for the scalps of Riley Paterson and Dawson in between, it was left to Guy Emmett to put the seal on Heywood’s demise with the final scalp of Tom McQuinn.

Heywood now have second-placed Woodbank as the visitors to Crimble on Saturday at the start of their six-game run-in.

Roe Green

• D Cooper c Cross b McQuinn 108
• J Stephens st Hunt b Morley 65
• J Kenyon b Morley 27
• L Williams c Morley b Townsend 27
• A Williams not out 24
• L Norris b McQuinn 1
• J Davies not out 6
• Extras 26
• Total (for 5 wkts, 50 overs) 284
• Fall of wickets: 1-134, 2-206, 3-234, 4-263, 5-268
• Bowling: T McQuinn 13-1-79-2, T Townsend 10-0-55-1, J Morley 15-0-60-2, C Hilton 5-0-24-0, R Paterson 7-0-62-0

Heywood

• R Cross c L Williams b Hough 40
• A Kerr lbw b L Williams 51
• R Paterson lbw b L Williams 9
• T Townsend c Kenyon b Hough 0
• S Burrill st Davies b Hough 4
• J Morley lbw b Hough 25
• A Dawson b L Williams 20
• W Hunt c A Williams b Hough 10
• M Grogan c Stephens b Hough 2
• T McQuinn b Emmett 1
• C Hilton not out 0
• Extras 6
• Total (43 overs) 168
• Fall of wickets: 1-65, 2-100, 3-102, 4-102, 5-119, 6-152, 7-152, 8-166, 9-168, 10-168
• Bowling: G Emmett 13-2-47-1, R Patel 6-1-19-0, A Hough 15-2-70-6, L Williams 9-2-31-