Norden made it a clean sweep of this year’s local derbies against Rochdale with a 47-run win on Saturday. The bowlers were the stars of the show, with Greg Butterworth and Dom Humphreys both taking 5 wickets and enabling Norden to comfortably defend the 152 they had posted after being put in to bat. After Danny Devine had edged Michael Harling behind early on, Josh Tolley was able to push the score along comfortably alongside Jack Taylor initially, and then Alex Willis. Taylor played with good intent for his 26 and Willis was able to continue his good form from last week with another well-constructed innings of 35. Tolley looked in little trouble as he made his way to 49, but in aiming to hit Oli Makin back over his head, he failed to make contact and was bowled. Makin, the former Norden off-spinner, was always going to be the main threat in the Rochdale attack, particularly on a pitch that took spin from the start. Perhaps he should have opened the bowling, rather than waiting until the 10th over to introduce himself. As it was, Norden were looking like posting a big total at 92 for 2, but Makin was a real handful, getting turn and bounce from the scoreboard end, and once the wickets started to fall, they continued to do so. Only Humphreys, of Norden’s 7 remaining batters, made it to double figures and the 200+ that had looked on the cards never materealised. Makin did the bulk of the damage, taking 7 for 51 from 12.5 overs, and Norden were bowled out in the 34th over. Makin has now taken hauls of 8 and 7 wickets against Norden in the last 2 seasons and remarkably ended up on the losing side on both occasions.
This defeat was down to a combination of poor Rochdale batting and good Norden bowling. Butterworth was more decisive than Makin had been and he rightly opened the bowling alongside brother Scott. He was rewarded by dismissing the Rochdale top 3 in quick time. Firstly, Jack Duffy found Willis at cover, and then Andrew Harrison edged to the safe hands of Humphreys at slip. Makin, in at 3, was next to go as Butterworth bowled him with a quicker ball. Everything was then resting on Ali Muzaffar, who has been a thorn in the Norden side on previous occasions, and Harling. Humphreys, replacing Scott from the Woodhouse Lane end, was the man to dismiss them both, for identical scores of 10. With them went any realistic hopes Rochdale had of victory, but Harry Butterworth showed some fight, alongside some good strokes, to make a defiant 42. He did not receive any support, though, and Butterworth and Humphreys continued to take wickets at the other end. Butterworth was the last man out, giving Humphreys figures of 5 for 46 with all 5 of his wickets being clean bowled. Humphreys has bowled impressively since returning from his side train, and these wickets were just rewards for those performances. Butterworth ended with 5 for 21, his 4th 5 wicket haul in the league this season, underlining what an excellent job he has done in stepping up following the departure of Ashar Zaidi. With all of Sunday’s Premier League games falling foul of the weather, Norden remain in 4th place going into the final 2 games of the season. 1st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107794
1st XI Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_gbCI0y7LI&feature=youtu.be
The 2nds had an extremely frustrating weekend. On Saturday they travelled to title-chasing Ramsbottom, but a spirited performance did not result in any points in defeat. Phil Docker led the way with 41 as Norden posted 157 for 9 from their 45 overs. A high quality Ramsbottom batting lineup were able to time their chase to perfection, with half-centuries for Michael Howarth and Seb Schofield, and despite trying everything they could, Norden were unable to pick up enough wickets to secure any bonus points as the hosts reached their target in the 41st over.
Sunday saw a relegation 24-pointer at Stag Park against Enfield. In a game played in intermittent rain and less than ideal conditions, Norden were cruising to victory when the umpires inexplicably decided to do a total U-turn on their determination to get a game of cricket played and declared conditions were suddenly unfit with only another 7 balls required to constitute a game. Mo Waheed had taken 3 for 34, and Modessar Hussain 2 for 12 as Enfield made 135 for 8 in their 33 allotted overs. The Norden target was bumped up to 141 by DLS, but this was proving no problem at all as Hashum Malik and Oli Yates took the home side to 94 for 1 from 18.5 overs, 21 ahead of the DLS par score at the time, before the umpires intervened. The rain stopped in 10 minutes, but for reasons that were not apparent to anybody, the decision was made by the umpires that the game could not resume. The resulting farcical scene of the captains shaking hands outside with 4 minutes additional play being needed and no rain falling, left Norden fuming.
2nd XI Scorecards: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110367
2nd XI Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCBe6QR_vWU&feature=youtu.be
The 3rds had a second 10-wicket win in 3 games, as they proved too good for Rawtenstall on Monday. Abu Farooq took 4 for 15 and there were wickets for two under 13’s in Adam Bunting and James Frankish, as Rawtenstall were bowled out for just 76. Farooq then teamed up with Joe Donnelly to knock the runs off with no trouble at all in the 18th over.
3rd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110034
3rd XI Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42pXi57xk5E