A long weekend of cricket saw Norden’s senior sides record 5 wins from a possible 6 and progress to the quarter-finals of both Lancashire League cup competitions. Unfortunately, the one blip in an otherwise excellent weekend was a heavy league defeat for the 1st XI at Clitheroe on Sunday.
Saturday brought success all-round with two very solid cup wins. The 1sts took on Todmorden, who had defeated Greg Butterworth’s side in the league just 2 weeks earlier, and they put on a fine batting performance to post a challenging total of 284 for 6 from their 50 overs. The innings was built around a 3rd century in as any weeks for Josh Tolley. Dropped at point when on 6, the Norden batter made Todmorden pay as he paced his innings beautifully. An opening stand of 84 with Alex Willis laid the foundation and Tolley was able to accelerate in partnerships with Ashar Zaidi and Greg Butterworth before he departed to huge applause in the 46th over for 123. Haris Hussain and Scott Butterworth provided some lusty blows late on and the feeling at the break was that it would almost certainly need a special innings from visiting professional Will Bosisto if Tod were going to chase down the runs. That did not materealise, as after Lukas Debnam had picked up the early wicket of Andrew Sutcliffe, youngster Jack Taylor marked his first appearance of the season with the big wicket. Taylor found plenty of turn in his spell and although he struggled for a consistent length, he drew a misjudgment from Bosisto when on 19 as he looked to cut a ball that was too full and had his off stump disturbed. Despite a half-century from Sohail Sajjad, Tod were never in the game after the departure of their main man and Zaidi helped himself to 4 wickets as Norden moved comfortably into the next round with a 92 run victory.
Unfortunately, Wi-Fi doesn’t yet appear to have reached Rishton, so details on the 2nds victory are a bit sketchy. What is known is that Norden chased down their target of 186 for the loss of 5 wickets, with Kabir Ahmed hitting some form with a half-century and Spencer Allen and Oli Kirkby getting the boys over the line. The draws for the next round will be at this Wednesday’s league meeting.
Worsley Cup Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/5992432
Worsley Cup Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsC6oUFuigg
Sunday saw Norden’s poor away form continue as they were comprehensively beaten at Chatburn Road. After electing to bat, the Norden top-order collapsed and rare failures for Tolley and Zaidi had the visitors reeling on 19 for 4, with veteran seamer Will Purser picking up the two big wickets. Lee Crabtree tried his best to put some respectability to the total with an unbeaten 32 but he ran out of partners with 8 and a half overs remaining and only 108 on the board. Home professional Dilshan Munaweera finished with figures of 5 for 34 and Purser took 3 for 17. Both Norden’s new-ball bowlers picked up a wicket but there were no further breakthroughs as Munaweera and Jack Dewhurst finished off the victory with an unbeaten partnership of 70.
1st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/5592469
It was better news at Stag Park as Mo Munawar’s 4 wickets went a long way to restricting Clitheroe 2s to 136 all out. A bit of an early wobble saw the top 3 back in the hut with just 23 on the board, but Spencer Allen’s cool head alongside Phil Docker initially and then Danny Devine and Tom Booth, meant that it was a perfect weekend for the second string and they continue to challenge on both fronts this season.
https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/55932702nd XI Scorecard:
Friday night saw the start of the t20 competition at Stag Park and Norden got their first 2 points on the board with a 38 run victory against Ramsbottom. Skipper Greg Butterworth top-scored with 45 for the home side as they posted 147 from their 20 overs. Not a massive score by any means but the chase was all but over after one ball as deputy professional Billy Godleman picked out Lee Crabtree at mid-off from Lukas Debnam’s opening delivery. Debnam picked up 2 more wickets and there were 2 for Zaidi as Rammy limped to just 108 for 8.
T20 Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/5526569
T20 Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecjmW2RPD8w
The 3rds rounded off the weekend with a good win at Todmorden on Bank Holiday Monday. Adam Khawaja scored the single required from the final ball of the game and he finished with a well-made unbeaten 38 to get his team over the line. There had earlier been two wickets each for Mo Omar and Saad Malik as Tod posted 152 from their 40 overs. Khawaja then batted sensibly from number 4 as others upped the tempo from the other end. Joe Donnelly’s unbeaten 10 from just 4 balls being particularly important.
3rd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/5616271