A introductory note from the Edgworth III XI Captain for the 2010 season Steve Mills.
CAPTAINS LOG – Steve Mills III XI
There was always going to be more pressure on the
III XI this season, on the back of our credible 4th
place in the league in 2009 and our fantastic cup final
victory over Blackley. Our key objective is to gain
promotion into Division 3, which essentially means that
we need to win the league. As such, it was imperative
that we got off to a winning start.
It was with some trepidation
therefore, that we took to the field in our first game
in April, against a rather youthful looking Walshaw III
XI. A combination of university, football and work
commitments meant that our blend of youth and experience
was skewed towards the latter, with a guest appearance
from Trevor Caine (following his return from what was
clearly a tiring trip to Poland) and a surprise early
season call up for Nick Holliday, alongside III XI
stalwarts, Jon Mather and Steve Mills.
James Lea
produced a lively opening spell, alongside Tom Simpson
who took a couple of overs to get into his stride
(perhaps a longer stride than necessary at times,
resulting in a number of no balls). That wily old fox,
Trevor Caine, kept things tight, allowing ‘spin king’
Rob Bancroft to weave his magic, resulting in a return
of 5 for 29 off 10 overs.
Chasing a total of 111,
Rob Bancroft (promoted to open the batting) and Sam
Holden fell early and with darkening skies and some
early season nerves, doubts began to creep in. Jon
Mather (75no) looked a class apart and, ably supported
by George Holliday (21no), secured an easy victory with
20 overs to spare.
Our first away trip took us to
Springhead, a delightful ground atop a hill on the far
side of Oldham (freezing!). The only real plus point of
Springhead is the teas, where the tea lady took
something of a liking to Jamie Simpson, who made a
welcome return to the III XI.
It turned out to
be a good toss to lose (not least as I had no idea what
to do) and we were asked to bat on a very green and
unpredictable looking track that was only going to get
worse. Some good contributions from Naz Malik (44) &
Alex Waddicar (28), plus an hilarious dismissal
(hit-wicket) from the returning Dave Critchley, laid the
foundation for Rob Bancroft (52no) to mount an assault
on the ‘ageing’ Springhead attack, spearheaded by the
ever-keen and vocal Keith Lees. Rob reached his 50 off
the last ball with a towering 6 to the longest boundary.
Our total of 178-9 was always going to be enough,
with Tom Simpson, Jon ‘all-rounder’ Mather and George
Holliday making full use of a deteriorating pitch. A
late onslaught by Lees (who took offence to Jon Mather’s
comment that the wicket was a pile of sh*te), ably
assisted by a 3-over spell by Naz Malik who tried his
best to make it interesting (to be fair it was cold by
then) took the Springhead total past 100, before George
Holliday, who finished with figures of 4 for 8 off 7
overs, wrapped things up. Another maximum points haul.
On Sunday, we welcomed Austerlands II XI to Edgworth
for the first time. They have replaced Uppermill III XI
in the NMCL this season and look to be a decent outfit.
Jon Mather stood in for captain Steve Mills (who was
dragged off to see Michael Buble in concert – only
joking dear), with probably the strongest looking
batting line up of the season so far. Late cry-offs
brought about a long-awaited comeback for Simon Ivers,
alongside seasoned Taverner Alan Clements, who had to be
told that drinking a bottle of Becks before the game,
wasn’t really the done thing.
Jon Mather won the
toss and didn’t hesitate to bat first. I can now only go
off the scorebook (as I wasn’t there), but our
impressive total of 241-6 was built around two major
innings – Jon himself with 110, but more significantly
in terms of the future of ECRC, George Holliday with his
maiden senior half century (62no).
I believe
there were some hairy moments during the Austerlands
reply, however they fell 25 runs short, reaching a
credible 216-7. Time will tell, but even at this early
stage, I think this could prove to be a very important
result, against a team that will be there or thereabouts
come the end of the season.
In summary therefore,
so far so good, with 14 points from a possible 15,
leaving us top of the league as of this weekend.
An air of caution however, there is a long way to go and
we will have challenges when needing to field 3 teams on
the same day. We have some tough games ahead, including
Darcy Lever (H) this Sunday, followed by a Saturday away
trip to Tottington St Johns and then Woodbank on two
consecutive Sundays (league and cup).
Some good
early season form - Jon Mather has rolled back the years
and has already amassed 200+ runs. George Holliday has
been involved in two match-winning partnerships and is a
class apart in his age group and Rob Bancroft will take
bags of wickets and score decent runs this season. Sam
Bancroft has been assured behind the sticks and kept
well in the II XI this weekend.
We have a good
spirit and we will need to maintain this as the season
unfolds. Keep it up boys !
Fixtures
& Results
