Two victories for Bamford-Fieldhouse u17s

Bamford-Fieldhouse

After a slow start, Bamford-Fieldhouse under 17s kick-started their season with two consecutive victories away from home.

In the first match at Greenfield, Bamford won the toss and put the home side in and after 4 overs they were 16 for 2 with Ahmed Nawaz and Joe Smith-Butler picking up early wickets.  Jones was the only batter to come to terms with the bowling and he ended up not out on 21 from a total of 81 for 9 wickets.  Fahad picked up 4 wickets for 21 and Smith-Butler got 4 for a miserly 5 runs but unfortunately, the team gave away 27 runs in bowling extras.

In reply, Fahad and Smith-Butler put on 49 before losing Smith-Butler, LBW to Heap for 17.  Fahad went on to make 31 before being bowled by Heap but the visitors cruised to a 5 wicket victory with 3 overs to spare.  Heap was the pick of the Greenfield bowlers with 4 wickets for 9.

A week later, at Well-I-Hole, Saddleworth ‘B’ proved a much sterner test in a match reduced to 16 overs.  Bamford opened this time and the reliable Joe Smith-Butler retired with an unbeaten 50 which included 5 fours and 3 sixes.  No one else was able to get going until Joe Mitchell blasted a quickfire 15 at the end of the innings and this set a competitive target of 101.

The  Saddleworth openers looked comfortable at the crease and although they didn’t lose any early wickets they began to fall behind the run rate.  William Salt and Adam Ahmed then made some headway in the batting order but the home side replied by upping the run rate and at the start of the last over needed 7 to win. Salt took the ball and only gave away 3 singles to see the visitors through to victory.