Heywood Third XI win Per-Fit Cup

Third XI Cup Winners Heywood CC

The third XI team has brought silverware to Heywood in the club’s first season in the Greater Manchester Premier League.

They produced two outstanding performances at the weekend to win the semi-final at Denton West on Sunday and the final against Elton at Thornham on Bank Holiday Monday to lift the Per-Fit Third XI Cup.

Even though Heywood clinched the finale by 29 runs it was tense stuff but the Heywood boys kept their nerve before a good crowd in an exciting affair staged with great credit by Thornham.

Heywood rattled up 174-8 from their 50 overs, importantly using every ball available to them, led by a man-of-the-match performance from captain Dominic Fawcett.

He came in after the early loss of Humza Naeem, then soon saw Michael Witts depart, too. But, just as the previous day in the semi-final, he was joined by Mikey Grogan to put together a vital partnership.

Grogan made just 16 but the stand of 55 with the skipper set the foundations for the eventual challenging total before he was stumped trying to accelerate the tempo.

Fawcett was eventually fifth out at 126 for a classy 60 and many of the sizeable throng of Heywood faithfuls may have harboured thoughts of the innings petering out.

Sam Byrne, answering a call to step in for the unavailable Joe Humphreys, made sure that did not happen.

He battled through the rest of the innings for an unbeaten 27 that was to prove crucial, with help from youngsters Tom Pagett, Jacob Kaye and Cabhan Hilton.

A target of 175 certainly gave the Heywood attack something to play with, and Naeem gave Heywood an early boost by bowling Michael Pettit.

Elton recovered to 40-1 before James Mills came into the attack to help swing things back in Heywood’s favour with an impressive spell of 2-17 from seven overs. And with Grogan also chipping in with a wicket, the opposition had slumped to 44-4.

That brought together Chris Murray and Ben Morris to threaten to take the game away from Heywood. Murray was particularly impressive, scoring fluently on both sides of the wicket, and at 107-4 Heywood must have wondered if the game was slipping away from them.

Up stepped Fawcett to make his final telling contribution.

He came into the attack as the sixth bowler to clean up the stumps of Murray for 38 and Morris for 27. And when the experienced Eddy Shah threatened to steer the Elton tail through to victory, Fawcett wrecked his stumps, too, to send him packing for 30.

Elton had little else to give and two run-outs underlined Heywood’s intensity in the field. They lost their lost three wickets without adding a run, with John Keyworth claiming the final scalp – caught fittingly by Pagett, one of Heywood’s young protégés.

Heywood

H Naeem lbw b Morris 15
M Witts b Murray 7
D Fawcett b E Shah 60
M Grogan c M Shah b Q Shah 16
J Mills c Stetlow b Q Shah 5
S Byrne not out 27
T Pagett b Q Shah 6
J Keyworth c Morris b Kent 4
J Kaye c and b Morris 1
C Hilton not out 3
Extras 30

Total (for 8 wkts, 50 overs) 174

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-43, 3-108, 4-116, 5-126, 6-133, 7-144, 8-164
Bowling: E Shah 10-2-10-1, R Kent 10-2-30-1, B Morris 9-1-33-2, C Murray
3-0-27-1, M Pettit 4-1-20-0, Q Shah 10-2-26-3, A Hussain 4-0-17-0

Elton

M Pettit b Naeem 4
S Stetlow b Grogan 13
J Birkett c Fawcett b Mills 20
W Hornby c Hilton b Mills 2
C Murray b Fawcett 38
B Morris b Fawcett 27
E Shah b Fawcett 30
Q Shah run out 0
A Hussain c Pagett b Keyworth 1
R Kent run out 0
M Shah not out n0
Extras 10

Total (44.1 overs) 145
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-40, 3-42, 4-44, 5-107, 6-128, 7-138, 8-145, 9-145,
10-145

Bowling: H Naeem 9-0-27-1, J Keyworth 9.1-2-33-1, M Grogan 8-0-30-1, J Mills
7-0-17-2, C Hilton 2-0-13-0, D Fawcett 9-1-22-3