A fine performance at Stag Park on Sunday gave Norden a well-deserved place in the semi-finals of the LCFKO. Blackpool were the visitors and Greg Butterworth won a good toss and asked the seasiders to bat first. As so often this season, Scott Butterworth provided the early breakthrough, clean bowling Blackpool skipper Ben Howarth for just 6. Visiting professional, Shivam Chaudhary, looked a big threat to the Norden attack as he drove powerfully down the ground and he took the score to 42 alongside opener Rishit Sharma. It was Greg who lured Chaudhary into a mistimed slog-sweep and Alex Willis held on to the skier, just about, at mid-off. Sharma followed soon after, to the exact same combination, and Blackpool were in a bit of trouble. Andrew Needham and Josh Boyne came together to put on 49 for the 4th wicket as Norden mixed up their bowling options. There was the welcome return to the bowling crease of Dom Humphreys after injury, but it was his replacement at the Woodhouse Lane end, Dean Lord, who broke the stand. Boyne played back to a good length ball and chopped-on for 26, much to Lord’s delight. Needham found more willing company in the form of Tom Myerscough, and he had struck 7 boundaries in reaching 43 when Greg returned to take his outside edge into the safe hands of Mitch Owen at slip. Norden sensed an opportunity and Scott came back into the attack to rip through the Blackpool lower-middle order. Oli Holt also joined the party with 2 wickets in 2 balls and Norden will have felt very satisfied with their bowling effort when Blackpool lost their last man in the 42nd over with the score on 165. The Butterworth brothers shared 7 wickets between them, with Greg also taking 3 catches off Scott’s bowling, including an excellent diving grab at mid-off.

Norden lost Scott early in the reply, but Owen and Josh Tolley were intent on taking the attack to the Blackpool medium-pacers. After miscuing and nearly holing out 2^nd ball, Owen attacked the short, straight boundary to good effect whilst Tolley was his usual, unflustered self at the other end. Owen had raced to 43 and the total to 72 in just 9 overs when the Norden pro played round one that nipped back from Matthew Grindley. Jack Taylor played nicely for 17 before failing to pick the googly from Izzy Stankzai and there was a moment of concern for Norden when Tolley appeared to pull up holding his groin. This wasn’t going to stop the Norden opener, though, and he brought up his half-century from 76 balls. Lee Crabtree, who has been in good form of late, got a little bit of luck but then found his sweep shot and between them, he and Tolley knocked off the further 58 runs required. Tolley finished unbeaten on 58 and Crabtree 30. Norden will travel to Ormskirk in the semi-final on the 28^th of July, with the league fixture against Church to be re-arranged.
LCFKO Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6610012
LCFKO Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7TOuJdR-j4

Saturday’s league game with Burnley was looking like it was slightly in Norden’s favour when the weather intervened. Burnley had battled hard and were aided by some sloppiness in the field to recover from 106 for 8 and post 186 for 9 from their 50 overs. Greg Butterworth was Norden’s star man with the ball, taking 5 for 51, and Jack Taylor also found some turn to take 3 for 39. Only 4.3 overs were possible in the Norden reply as the rain came down heavily to start with, and then never eased off enough for a resumption.
1^st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107854

The 2nds had an unprecedented 16 players unavailable for their trip to Burnley and were never likely to be competitive against a strong home side. David Bebb and Mohammad Omar put on 35 for the opening wicket after Bebb had elected to bat, but the Burnley spinners proved to be too good for the depleted Norden team. Only Theo Andrew made it into double figures from the remaining batters and Norden were all-out for 69 in the 31^st over. Burnley only needed 10.3 overs to knock off the runs, but there was a debut wicket for Sebastian Howard, who will return to this level better equipped in the years to come.
2^nd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110315

A familiar face returned to Stag Park on Sunday, and proved to be the difference between the sides. Dan Salpietro, Norden professional in 2014 and 2015, is now plying his trade for Lowerhouse and he put in an all-too-familiar all-round performance to lead his new side to victory. Perhaps surprisingly in the warm weather, Norden chose to bowl first and Scott Butterworth had visiting captain Ben Heap caught behind early. The in-form Jonny Whitehead was quickly in to his stride and, alongside the experience Francois Hasbroek, began to find the boundary with regularity. Whitehead had 43 from just 39 balls when the returning Chris Humphreys nipped one back through his defences to end the partnership on 53. Salpietro arrived at the crease and was cautious early on but Norden were bowling too many boundary balls and they were never able to get a period of control. Things weren’t helped by a couple of missed opportunities in the field and Lowerhouse were starting to look at a score up towards 280. The partnership between Hasbroek and Salpietro was 119 in 21 overs when Butterworth returned to have Salpietro trapped LBW for 57, a ball after he had chopped a yorker into his own foot and seemed in obvious discomfort. Hasbroek continued, without ever really opening his shoulders, and Henri Cottam and Charlie Gansler made good contributions. Mitch Owen bowled well at the death, including the wicket of Hasbroek for 87, and Norden did well to keep the score to 269 for 7.

A tough chase for sure, but the pitch was flat and Norden still fancied their chances at the interval. Scott Butterworth, deputising for the missing Lee Crabtree at the top of the order, didn’t last long and the key partnership of Owen and Josh Tolley was quickly out in the middle. With the field set back from the outset, both were able to get off to starts without having to take many chances. Salpietro was introduced into the attack an immediately found turn, but the short legside boundary from the Woodhouse Lane end was proving tricky to defend. Tolley’s 50 came from 75 balls and Owen’s from 47, and their partnership had Norden as marginal favourites half-way into the chase. Salpietro was a constant threat, though, and he got his reward when he struck Tolley on the back leg to dismiss him for 70. Four overs later, Owen followed him back to the Pavilion. Despite runs flowing freely from the other end, the Norden paid man looked to attack his counterpart and was outdone by a quicker ball that hurried his slog-sweep and hit middle stump. Lowerhouse were jubilant and the game had been turned on its head. Unfortunately, the Norden middle-order has not been in great form, and this continued as wickets began to fall regularly. Only Oli Holt of the other 9 batters managed to make double figures and Salpietro finished with 5 for 35 and a match-winning spell. Consecutive defeats for Norden sees them slip to 6^th in the table with a big weekend of a home game against high-flying Burnley and the LCFKO quarter-final against Blackpool ahead.
1^st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107848
1^st XI Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CW3hnn23cw

This year’s disappointing t20 campaign continued with a 4^th consecutive defeat away at Todmorden on Friday night. Todmorden racked up an imposing total of 195 for 6 from their 20 overs with professional Ed Moore top-scoring with 53. Oli Holt took 3 for 35 for Norden. In reply, Tolley made a 25-ball half-century, but other Norden batters could not score at anywhere near the same tempo and they closed on 141 for 6. There was, however, a highly-promising performance with bat and ball by 18-year-old Stan Kearns in just his second game at this level.
T20 Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6099238

The 2nds hosted Littleborough on Saturday in their Junior Cup quarter-final held over from last week. Batting first, Littleborough reached 57 without loss before Phil Sutcliffe misjudged a single and was run out by the combination of Devine and Booth. Oli Kirkby picked up another wicket soon after and there was a chance for a 3^rd when Gary Nash skied to mid-on on 2. Unfortunately, the chance went down and Nash made Norden pay. His 62 included 5 fours and 2 sixes, and another half-century from Ben Williamson helped the visitors up to a score of 252 for 7. Kirkby took 3 wickets for Norden, but the standout bowler was undoubtedly Mo Waheed, who bowled his 10 overs for just 27 runs. Norden made a really good fist of a difficult chase, getting off to an excellent start with an opening partnership of 79 between Devine and Phil Docker. After Waheed’s spell for Norden, it was Littleborough’s experienced duo who Norden found the toughest to face. Phil Deakin and Chris Dearden, both part of the England over 60’s squad, took 3 for 66 between them from their 20 overs and Norden were just unable to pick up enough from the other bowlers to get over the line. Devine played superbly for his 86 and deserves credit for continuing to push for the target rather than cruise to a first Norden century, which will surely come if he continues in this vein. An 18-run defeat means it is LIttleborough who will have the chance to reach the final when they host Enfield in the semis.
Junior Cup Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6603671
Junior Cup Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66E8abZzgyo

The disappointment of Saturday was, at least in part, eased by an excellent win away at Lowerhouse on Sunday. That man Mo Waheed was at it again with the ball, taking 3 for 26, and there were 2 wickets each for Sami Waheed, Oli Kirkby and Oli Yates as Lowerhouse put 174 for 9 on the board. This represented quite the recovery, having been 11 for 8 at one stage. Despite losing David Bebb early, Norden were never in trouble in their reply. Spencer Allen, first alongside Kirkby, and then Stan Kearns, anchored the innings and he was finally dismissed for 67 with only a further 5 runs required. Kearns made 32 and unfortunately Kirkby was forced to retire hurt with a nasty looking knee injury. Obviously, we hope it is not too serious and we can see Oli back on the field in the not-too-distant future. The 6-wicket win lifts Norden out of the relegation zone and into 8^th place.
2^nd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110313

The standout performance of the weekend came from the 3rds when they visited Greenmount on Saturday. A superb bowling performance saw Greenmount reduced to 29 for 9, before scrambling up to 43 all-out. Will Hindley and Charlie Gooding took 3 wickets each, but all the bowlers performed brilliantly against a strong Greenmount batting line-up. There was no trouble in knocking off the runs, just one wicket down for the most impressive of 12-point wins.
3^rd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6109994

Norden’s Lancashire League title challenge took a hit on Sunday with a heavy defeat to fellow title hopefuls, Darwen. The seemingly never-ending rain meant conditions were damp, but play started on time and the home side won what felt like an important toss and predictably asked Norden to bat first. Lee Crabtree could not continue his good form from last week, and he was the first wicket to fall, trapped LBW by Reece Davies without scoring. Mitchell Owen was not going to let conditions alter his ultra-aggressive style and he had 19 of the 21 runs on the board when he fell the same way as Crabtree. Jack Taylor and Josh Tolley dug in to try and establish a foothold in the game, but another member of the Davies family, Jack, was introduced into the attack to good effect and he dismissed both Norden batters before the total had reached 50. In conditions like these, one of the last bowlers in the Lancashire League you want to be up against is Dave Bowden, and he got in on the act by clean bowling Greg Butterworth and then having Nick Brierley adjudged LBW the very next ball. Norden were now reeling on 48 for 6, but there was some lower-order resistance. Alex Willis rarely gives his wicket away easily and, alongside first Oli Holt and then Scott Butterworth, he helped get Norden up over 100. A last wicket stand of 22 between Oli Kirkby and Dean Lord ended when Kirkby became Jack Davies’ fourth victim and Darwen were to be chasing 128 to win.

Norden could not have got off to a better start with the ball as Scott Butterworth knocked over home captain, Scott Friend, with the first ball of the reply. Unfortunately for Norden, no other bowler could find the same consistency. Darwen professional, Punit Bisht, was in no mood to hang around and wait for a ball with his name on it and with only 6 overs gone both Owen and Greg Butterworth had been hit out of the attack. The partnership between Bisht and Reece Davies continued to blossom and Bisht got to his half-century in 58 balls. Taylor, introduced into the attack late for Norden, was able to break the partnership by bowling Davies for 41, but it was much too late and a very comfortable win for the home side was wrapped up with just 2 wickets down and 24 overs remaining. Norden remain in 3^rd in the table, with Darwen leap-frogging Burnley to go top of the pile.
1^st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107839

Norden’s poor run of form in the t20 competition continued on Friday with a 3^rd straight defeat, this time at the hands of Crompton. Dennis Louis and Mohammed Jamal got Crompton off to a flying start and they raced to 79 from 6 overs before Jamal was caught in the deep off Sami Waheed. Norden were able to capitalise and picked up 6 wickets quickly, but Hassan Fazal and Mohammed Hamzah hit 5 sixes between them to boost the Crompton innings at the end. They finished on 174 for 8 from their 20 overs, with Waheed picking up 3 for 33 for Norden. The Stags were never able to get up with the rate in their reply, and despite only losing 5 wickets, they fell 27 runs short of their target to remain bottom of the group.
T20 Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6099232

Unfortunately, Friday saw the only cricket to be played at Stag Park over the weekend, with both 2^nd team games called off without a ball bowled. The Junior Cup quarter-final against Littleborough will now be played on Saturday the 22^nd of June, with the 3^rd team fixture on that day being played away at Greenmount.

Sad news to report, as long time member Karl Buckley has sadly passed away.

Karl became a regular fixture at the club in the mid 2000’s when brother-in-law, Dexter Fitton took over as head junior coach. Both Karl’s sons, Matt and Dan, came through the junior ranks and went on to play 1st XI cricket for the club with uncle Dexter as 1st XI captain.

Karl was a great man. Firm, but fair. He had a great sense of humour and was generous with his time. As the owner of Corletts garage, where he worked for the best part of 40 years, he was well known in the village. Karl was also a well known figure down at Rochdale St Clements FC.

He will be sadly missed by all who had the pleasure to know him.

Our love and thoughts go out to Helen, Matt and Dan at this difficult time.

Norden kept the pressure on the league leaders with a comfortable 10-wicket win against Enfield on Saturday. Despite missing the injured Dom Humphreys, the Norden bowling attack turned in an excellent performance to dismiss the visitors for just 121. Jack Taylor, bowling with the new ball, claimed the first wicket by bowling the dangerous Lewis Wright with one that skidded on. His excellent spell of 2 for 19 was backed up by Scott Butterworth, before brother Greg brought himself on to do the bulk of the damage. A partnership of 76 between professional Pramod Maduwantha and skipper Adam Bracewell, playing his 500^th Lancashire League game for the club, was the only one of note that Enfield could muster, but Greg dismissed both before the total had reached 100. Bracewell looked unhappy at the LBW decision that went against him, and Maduwantha gave his wicket away having barely looked to play an attacking stroke in his 23. The lower order was not up to the task and Butterworth was able to help himself to a 5-wicket haul, finishing with a season’s best 5 for 34.

The reply can only be described as a canter. Josh Tolley and Lee Crabtree were never in any trouble against the Enfield attack. The only chance offered was a missed stumping off Crabtree when there were just 10 more required. Tolley made 63* and Crabtree 54* for his first half-century of the season. There will be bigger tests ahead for The Stags, starting with a trip to Darwen on Sunday in a clash of 2^nd vs 3^rd.
1^st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107836
1^st XI Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__4oVxpgKlc&feature=youtu.be

Sunday’s LCF Knockout 2^nd round clash with Edgworth was settled by a bowl-out after persistent rain meant there was no play possible at Stag Park. Norden progressed to the quarter-finals with a 4-1 win, with both Butterworth brothers, Dean Lord and Josh Tolley hitting the stumps. Norden will host Blackpool CC in the next round on June 30^th.

It looks highly unlikely that Norden will make it out of the t20 group stages after a 2^nd consecutive defeat on Friday night. The bowlers certainly did their job by restricting Walsden to 135 for 6 with Dean Lord bowling an outstanding spell of 3 for 10 against his favourite opponents. Unfortunately, the batters were unable to back it up in rapidly darkening conditions and a DLS adjusted target of 125 from 18 was out of reach despite the best efforts of Crabtree with 40 and Tolley with 32.
T20 Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6099240

The 2nds were well beaten at Enfield. Again missing a number of players for various reasons, things started well when Oli Kirkby clean-bowled Anthony Steele with the first ball of the match. Sadly, there was to be little joy after that as only 3 more wickets fell in the Enfield innings of 209 for 4 from their 45 overs. A definite positive was another promising performance from young leg-spinner Jake Hill, who bowled his 12 overs consecutively for a spell of 1 for 45. Norden lost Kirkby and skipper Tom Booth in consecutive deliveries with the score on 10 and it was always going to be a tough struggle from then on. Haris Hussain was able to find some form with 40, and Stan Kearns played some nice strokes, but Norden couldn’t get close enough to pick up any bonus points.
2^nd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110298

The funeral will take place on Thursday 27 June; details as follows:
11.30 a.m. Funeral Mass at St Vincent’s Church, Caldershaw Road, Norden, OL12 7QL

12.40 p.m. Rochdale Crematorium, Bury Road, Rochdale, OL11 4 DG

1.15 p.m. Celebration of Sheila’s life at Rochdale Golf Club, Edenfield Road, Norden, OL11 5YR

The family has extended an invitation to all NCC members to join them in celebrating Sheila’s life.

Please note that, as a mark of respect to Sheila and so all staff are able to attend, the clubhouse will be closed on the day of the funeral.

Please note that this Sundays LCF Cup game against Edgworth with now be a 12 o’clock start, due to the closure of Edenfield Road between 11-1 for the Tour Of Britian Women cycling race.

The interment of Bob Fee’s ashes has ben re-scheduled for Saturday 13th of July. The ceremony will take place at the innings break in the Norden 2nd XI vs Todmorden game. It is anticipated to start between 15:30 – 16:00.

After a chastening defeat in the t20 at Greenmount on Friday night, Norden returned to winning ways in the league with a 6-wicket victory at Hare Hill on Sunday. After Littleborough had batted first and put 217/9 on the board, it was Mitch Owen who came to the fore in the run chase. His unbeaten century, his second for Norden, came from 71 balls and saw his team home with over 8 overs to spare.

The Littleborough innings was built around half-centuries from Zac Perren and Ryan Miskella, after sub-pro Haseeb Hameed had been caught behind for 30 off the bowling of Owen. The Boro pair put on 65 and, with Dom Humphreys having left the field with a side-strain, the Norden bowling attack was under pressure. The Butterworth brothers stepped up and took 7 wickets between them, Greg with 3 and Scott 4 to take his tally in the league to 16. Miskella batted through until the final over for his 62 and Joe Barnes played a nice cameo of 27 from 17 balls.

With Humphreys unlikely to bat, Norden started the chase effectively 1 wicket down and they lost both openers before the score had reached 30. Owen was his usual aggressive self from the outset, and again found good support from Jack Taylor. Taylor is fast becoming a key cog in this Norden team and he again played with intelligence, rotating the strike and allowing the professional to dominate the home bowlers. The partnership had just reached 100 when Miskella got one through Taylor’s defences and Greg Butterworth was caught behind off Hameed soon afterwards. The cool head of Spencer Allen joined Owen and there was to be no futher joy for the Littleborough bowlers. Owen struck 11 fours and 3 sixes in his knock, finishing unbeaten on 108. A fine effort under pressure. Allen was 19*
1^st XI Scorecad: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107829

Unfortunately, Friday night’s game must be at least mentioned in passing. Defending champions Greenmount made a good, but far from un-gettable, 180/4 and Norden fancied their chances at half-way. Tom Heaton made 76 for the hosts. Josh Tolley was cleaned up by Callum Hunter in the first over and Owen holed out off his counterpart Jacques Snyman in the second, meaning a tough chace now looked almost impossible. The Norden batting line-up continued to be aggressive, but to no avail as Hunter ran through the side, taking an impressive 5 for 7 from his 4 overs. The Stags were bowled out for just 35, meaning they may well have to win all their remaining group games to qualify for the quarter-finals. They have a chance to start that run at home to Walsden on Friday night.
T20 Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6099233

A youthful 2^nd team put on an excellent showing at Stag Park on Sunday. Batting first, Norden lost Oli Kirkby and Haris Hussain in consecutive deliveries with the score on 29, but the experienced pair of Phil Docker and Hashim Malik put on 51 before Docker went for one sweep too many and fell for 32. Malik continued alongside Oli Yates and they too put on over 50. Malik made a 2^nd half-century of the season and was a tad unlucky to fall to a good caught and bowled from Andy Rodgerson. The Norden innings fell away a little, but Yates’ 44 was his highest score at this level and a total of 206/8 was definitely something to bowl at. It was Yates who did the damage with the new ball, taking 3 early wickets before handing over to step-brother Jake Hill on debut. Hill, in tandem with Mo Waheed, bowled impressively and was unlucky not to have picked up a wicket or two before he finally got his just rewards. Jamie Roche and Harrison Chew had threatened to make a game of it, but Hill removed both set batters in the same over, before adding a 3^rd wicket when Littleborough skipper Tim Astley failed to make contact with a pull shot and was bowled. Littleborough fell 63 short of their target, giving Norden all 12 points.
2^nd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110295
2^nd XI Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYpPBApYrXs&feature=youtu.be

Littleborough were also the opponents for the 3rds on Saturday. Charlie Gooding, playing his first game of the season after returning from university, was right back in the swing of things taking 4 for 5 from 5.3 overs. There were also 2 wickets for Seb Howard as Littleborough were all out for 90. Norden’s chase was helped considerably by 32 extras, and a sensible 23* from Will Hindley got Jimmy’s men over the line with plenty of time to spare.
3^rd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6109984

There was a sombre mood at Stag Park on Saturday following the untimely passing of club stewardess, Sheila Worsley. An impeccably observed minute’s silence was held in Sheila’s honour prior to the 2^nd XI cup tie against Accrington and the number of people in attendance only served to underline what a popular figure the club had lost.

The game started poorly for Norden as some ill-discipline with the new ball allowed Accrington to get off to a quick start. Opener Dilshan Fernando looked in good touch and he struck 5 boundaries in an aggressive 37, whilst young partner, Joe Graham was holding firm at the other end. Skipper Tom Booth turned to the Waheeds to try and get some control of proceedings and it was Sami who got the breakthrough as he found Fernando’s off-stump as the batter aimed for another legside boundary. 3 further wickets fell in quick time, another for Sami and 2 for the ever-reliable Mo. Graham continued to play obdurately for the visitors, though, and Shakeel Khan joined him to good effect. A partnership of 64 was proving frustrating for Norden and it took the extra pace off Jamie Taylor to break the stand as he sent Graham’s off peg cartwheeling. Once Khan had chipped a full-toss straight back to Oli Kirkby, Sami returned to mop up the tail and claim a first 5-wicket haul of the season. The Waheeds took 7 for 48 from 19.2 overs between them and Norden had them to thank for keeping the score below 200. Accrington’s 174 all-out included 32 wides bowled by the home side, something that will have to improve as the season progresses.

Zain Hanif quickly showed himself to be the main threat with the ball for Accrington and he took the first two wickets of the run chase, clean bowling Kirkby and Joe Gordon, playing his first match of the season having returned from university. As usual, Spencer Allen was able to provide some stability to the innings and he was the perfect foil for Danny Devine, who was playing fluently. Devine drove straight with impressive regularity and only offered one chance in bringing up his maiden Norden half-century from 70 balls. Both he and Allen perished looking to clear mid-off, perhaps unwisely given how comfortably they were playing in other areas, but Hashum Malik was in no mood to hang around and he blasted an unbeaten 46 in 30 balls, with 5 sixes. Norden go through to the quarter-finals of the Junior Cup, the draw for which takes place on Wednesday evening.
Junior Cup Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6591476
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-efAM6SXld0&feature=youtu.be

Sunday saw the return of the poor early-season weather, but the 2nds did manage to fit in enough cricket between showers to complete a game. Unfortunately, they came off 2^nd best to Great Harwood, for whom experienced captain, Miles Corish, made 88 as the home side battled well with the bat in difficult conditions. In fact, when rain brought an early end to the home side’s innings after 36.4 overs, Norden had only managed to take one wicket. A slight DLS adjustment to the target meant Norden were second-favourites but certainly weren’t out of the game. That didn’t stay the case for very long, however, as wickets began to fall at regular intervals. No Norden batter got to 20 and there were a number of soft dismissals before the rain returned again and play was abandoned with Norden on 75 for 8, 66 runs short of where they would have needed to be.
2nds Sunday Scorecard: http://www.lancashireleague.com/Scorecards/1313/1313930.html

Just 28.2 overs were possible at Stag Park on Sunday as Norden and Middleton had to settle for 5 points apiece. The Norden fans did get a first sighting of Mitch Owen with ball in hand, and he took 2 early wickets in an opening spell that suggests he will be a huge asset with ball as well as bat for the remainder of the season. Middleton were 109 for 2 thanks to an unbroken partnership of 99 between captain Andy Gregoriou and professional James Price, when the heavens opened and no further play was possible.

Friday night’s t20 opener at Ramsbottom was postponed and has been re-scheduled for the 28^th of June.

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the sudden passing of our dear friend and club stewardess, Sheila Worsley overnight. As a mark of respect the clubhouse will be closed this evening (Friday 24 May). Please can you respect the family’s privacy at this most awful of times.

The club will reopen at lunchtime tomorrow and there will be a minutes silence observed before the cricket match commences in Sheila’s honour. Anyone welcome to attend to pay their respects.