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 6th in the table with a big weekend of a home game against high-flying Burnley and the LCFKO quarter-final against Blackpool ahead.
1st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107848
1st XI Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CW3hnn23cw
This year’s disappointing t20 campaign continued with a 4th 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 3rd 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 8th place.
2nd 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.
3rd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6109994