Cricket: Victory for Middleton against Great Harwood

Middleton Cricket Club began their season with a superb 76 run victory against Great Harwood on the glorious day at Towncroft.

Skipper Dale Highton won the toss and elected to bat to the delight of his teammates.

The returning Grant Jones and Leighton Le Carpentier opened the batting and put on a stand of 64 aided by some useful extras before Jones was unluckily given out lbw for 30 just as he was getting into his stride.

James Tierney didn't last long before being out for one with the score on 79. Professional Chris Williams followed soon after and Middleton had slumped to 80 for 3.

New signing Richard Dempster joined Le Carpentier and together they took the score to 121 before Dempster was caught behind by Armer, off the bowling of Great Harwood professional De Silva for 13.

Another returning player Martin (Malcolm) Roberts aided Le Carpentier to put on a stand of 33 before Le Carpentier fell for an excellent 53 - his first half century at first level - also caught behind off Maher. Roberts was next to go with the score on 184.

Danny Royle joined Rhys Tierney and they put on 30 in three overs before Royle was lbw for 12. By this time Tierney was in full flow playing some excellent shots, none more so than two huge sixes as Middleton finished on 235 for 9. Tom Rutter scored three, Addison Holland was bowled first ball and Tierney (41) and Highton (1) both finished not out.

Middleton had set a decent total which was assisted by some wayward bowling with a total of 60 extras being conceded.

Great Harwood opened with Bunn and Oddie but Middleton struck early when Dempster, with the last ball of the second over, had Bunn well caught by Rutter and Great Harwood were 7 for 1.

The score had reached 30 when Williams bowled Ali for five and two balls later had Professional De Siva lbw without scoring to make up for his earlier disappointment.

Armer was next to go for 12 with the score on 55. He was well caught by James Tierney in the deep off Highton and it became worse for Great Harwood the very next ball when Highton caught and bowled the Great Harwood skipper Paul Holdsworth to leave them struggling on 55 for 5.

To their credit they began to rebuild and Oddie and Hussain put on a stand of 67 before Oddie was well stamped down the leg side by Le Carpentier off Highton for an excellent 64 with 12 fours. Briggs managed to hang around as Hussain tried to set about the Middleton attack but just after reaching his half century off 60 balls with 7 fours and 1 six, he attempted a suicidal round and was easily run out.

Briggs was run out for three.

Basharat was easily caught by Royle off Dempster before Holland wrapped things up with the score on 159 when he bowled Maher for 0.

A promising first game and victory for Middleton with everyone chipping in and apart from a couple of dropped catches an excellent fielding performance.