Haslingden have been somewhat of a bogie side for Norden in recent years, so it came as a relief when a good bowling performance paved the way for a comfortable 12 point win on Sunday. Greg Butterworth was unsure of what to do when the coin landed his way, but he decided to bowl first and his bowling attack backed him up from the start. The pitch looked pretty flat, but Scott Butterworth and Dom Humphreys gave little away with the new ball and the building pressure led to the first wicket when skipper Matthew Griffin clipped Humphreys to midwicket. Fellow opener Simon Newbitt followed in the same over after looking to advance and playing all round a straight one. Sean Hunsley chipped tamely to cover and Leighton Friend left the field feeling very unfortunate as he middled a pull shot off Butterworth, only for Mitch Owen to stick out a right hand and pluck it from the air. Haslingden were struggling on 37 for 4, but they have an excellent professional in South African Rudi Second and he stuck around alongside Alex Coleman to build a partnership of 50 in 14 overs. By now, Owen was into the attack and he broke the stand when Second slightly miscued a pull shot and the ball dropped into the safe hands of Oli Holt on the deep midwicket boundary. He went for 45 and the Haslingden lower order was not able to do enough to push the score up to something competitive. Owen had his best spell in a Norden shirt, taking 4 for 36, and Humphreys and the Butterworth brothers took 2 apiece as Haslingden were bowled out for 128 in 45 overs.
Norden were never likely to play as cautiously as the visitors had and when Josh Tolley was joined by Owen after Lee Crabtree had fallen LBW to Gary Sudworth, the fireworks started. Owen raced to 20 off just 7 balls and the field was being spread to all parts. The pair added 67 in just 8 overs, but both were dismissed in quick succession. Tolley looked to use is feet to Sudworth but was bowled, and Friend got his revenge on Owen when he took a good catch at deep square leg after the Norden professional had got a very good piece of a sweep shot off Second. With 48 still needed, and a bit of history of middle-order collapses, there were a couple of worried spectators but they needn’t have been concerned. Jack Taylor and Alex Willis continued the positive intent and the match was done before the drinks break. 12 points in the bag and on to a big weekend next weekend. The league fixture against Church has been moved to Saturday to accommodate the Lancashire Cup semi-final at Ormskirk the following day. The 2nd XI game against Colne remains on Sunday.
1st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107872
1st XI Highlights: 1st XI vs Haslingden Highlights – YouTube
The 2nds lost a nail-biter at Haslingden. Having been stuck in, Norden got off to a solid start with a 50 partnership between Danny Devine and Phil Docker. When Docker fell caught at slip, skipper Hashum Mallik joined Devine and the pair took the score to 100. Neither managed to kick on to a big score, though, and that precedent continued through the innings. Haris Hussain and Jamie Taylor also made good contributions, but there wasn’t the innings to take the team total from a good one to an excellent one. As it was Norden finished on 201 for 9. Haslingden were allowed a rapid start by some ill-discipline with the new ball, but Norden scrapped hard to get back into the game. Bowling mainly off a short-run, Sami Waheed took 5 wickets and the pressure looked to be telling on the Haslingden batters as a comfortable chase was quickly turned into a tough one. 6 were needed from the final over bowled by Stan Kearns, but Muneeb Ahmed hit the penultimate ball straight down the ground for 4 to seal the win.
2nd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110336
The 3rds pulled off a fantastic victory at Todmorden on Saturday. Having batted first and scored 149 for 9 in their 40 overs, Norden looked like they were heading for defeat when Todmorden needed just 27 from 7 overs with 7 wickets in hand. Some tight bowling led to some panic in the Todmorden ranks, though, and no fewer than 5 run-outs contributed to an almighty collapse. 7 wickets fell for 15 runs and stand-in skipper Beamer had led his troops to a maximum-point win and 3rd place in the table. A tough match at home to league-leaders Nelson is next up on Saturday.
3rd Xi Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110006