Cricket: Set back for the Moonrakers

Middleton Cricket Club

Middleton Cricket Club's trip to Dill Hall Lane on Saturday 24 August resulted in a disappointing three wicket defeat to Enfield.

After winning the toss and deciding to bat Dale Highton's team made a poor effort on a spongy track after the downpours during the week.

Nobody was able to stick around long enough to put together a decent partnership as Middleton struggled to score runs.

Professional Chris Williams was the first to go with the score on 10 when he was bowled by Lewis Wright for 10 and just one run later Leighton Le Carpentier (1) and James Tierney were both back in the shed (0).

Middleton never really recovered and slumped to 31-9 thanks to Enfield bowlers Wright, who finished up with superb figures of 12-5-18-6 and Scott Wilkinson who had 11-2-24-3.

Addison Holland and Highton more than doubled the score for Middleton in a last wicket stand of 33 to take the score up to 64 before Highton was run out for nine with Holland remaining unbeaten on nine and Richard Dempster was top scorer with 10. Middleton also had to be thankful for Mr Extras which totalled 27.

Middleton needed early wickets to have any chance, but this didn't come until the score had reached 17 when Dempster had Alfie Cook lbw for two.

Enfield comfortably moved on to 36 before Highton replaced the strangely subdued Williams and struck twice in his first over, removing Wright bowled for 11 and having Greg Jones (20) caught by Dempster one run later and then Dempster had Yasir Ali lbw and Enfield were 38-4.

Five runs later Highton struck again when he bowled Patrick Swanney for two.

The score had moved up to 59 when Highton took his fourth wicket and his 50th league wicket of the season when he had Enfield's Sri Lankan professional Shashrika Pussegolla caught and bowled for 15.

Highton picked up a fifth wicket when he had Jack Cook lbw for nil with the score 63 but Enfield finished the game off with three wickets to spare.

Highton finished with excellent figures of 8-2-15-5 and Dempster strove hard with figures of 13.1-3-22-2 while Middleton managed to pick up three bowling points which could be crucial at the end of the season.