Cricket: Cross sets up victory for Heywood

An unbeaten 97 from Heywood captain, Bobby Cross, helped to set the platform for Heywood's victory against Middleton.

Cross took time to establish himself alongside Ross Zelem but then played brilliantly late on as wickets fell to ensure Heywood posted the total they should have.

Batting first, Heywood set a total of 247 with Ross Zelem (61) providing Cross with valuable support. However, it will go down as an opportunity missed by Middleton as they had Heywood in trouble at 173 for 7. A determined lower batting performance from Wes Hunt and Humza Naeem helped their captain in his quest to set a winning target.

Steve Holmes bowled his usual tight opening stint as his teammates proved to be expensive. Sub professional, Ashar Zaidi, took five wickets at the cost of 69 runs.

In reply, Middleton never looked like challenging the total once George Walker and Zaidi were back in the pavilion with the score on 18 for two. This quickly became 23 for four, as Scott Stanworth and Steve Davey were dismissed by Riley Patterson and Naeem respectively.

Grant Jones and Paul Bennett tried to put a bit of respectability on proceedings and took the score to 92 before both batters fell within a few runs of each other and then more wickets tumbled as Middleton slumped from 92 for four to 124 for nine.

It took a last wicket stand of 27 runs between Ben Lee and Holmes to push the score over 150. They only managed to add another run though so suffered a heavy defeat.

With Walsden, Littleborough and Rochdale all winning this was an important result for Heywood.

Heywood
R Zelem st Stanworth b Zaidi 61
A Dawson run out 30
R Cross not out 97
T Townsend c Stanworth b Buckley 2
D Pawson c Stanworth b Zaidi 18
D Latham b Walker 1
S Dawson lbw b Zaidi 4
R Paterson b Walker 1
W Hunt c Stanworth b Zaidi 13
H Naeem c and b Zaidi 11
C Kaye not out 1
Extras 8

Total (for 9 wickets, 50 overs) 247
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-114, 3-117, 4-148, 5-155, 6-168, 7-173, 8-203, 9-231
Bowling: Holmes 10-2-33-0
Bennett 3-0-36-0
Buckley 11-0-50-1
Zaidi 15-1-69-5
Walker 11-2-59-2

Middleton
S Stanworth c Townsend b Paterson 16
G Walker b Paterson 0
A Zaidi lbw b Naeem 4
G Jones b S Dawson 48
S Davey b Naeem 0
P Bennett lbw b Townsend 30
A Copeland c Paterson b Townsend 4
M Buckley c Naeem b Kaye 4
M Foden c Latham b Kaye 1
B Lee c Pawson b S Dawson 10
S Holmes not out 17
Extras 17

Total (39.5 overs) 151
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-18, 3-22, 4-23, 5-92, 6-110, 7-117, 8-124, 9-124, 10-151
Bowling:
Paterson 6-0-41-2
Naeem 7-2-21-2
Kaye 14-2-34-2
Townsend 9-1-36-2
S Dawson 3.5-1-19-2