A youthful Norden U18s lost for the first time this season after going down to a 9-wicket defeat at Middleton on Thursday evening. Due to impending exams the following day, only four genuine U18 players took to the field with the rest of the side made up from lads stepping up from the 15s and 13s.
The game got underway late due to heavy rainfall and Norden batted first with captain Joe Donnelly and Harry Mason walking out to face the first of the fifteen overs. It proved a slow start for the visitors and after 5 overs, a third of the innings, the score stood on just 11 with James Sanders completing his 3 overs for the cost of just 5 runs.
As Norden attempted to up the run-rate, Donnelly fell to Sonny Abraham for 10 but this brought Callum Hill to the wicket. His arrival saw more aggressive shots being played at the crease as the visitors attacked new spin bowler Haider Abbas. Hill would go on to score 34 not out from 27 balls as Norden chalked up 81/3 with Mason contributing 24.
Middleton looked a more physically imposing side than their opponents and this was evident in openers Sem Smith and Sam Ganner. Smith, heavily favouring the legside, was able to keep the scoreboard ticking over and by the end of the 7th over they had reached 33/0 courtesy of two boundaries in the last of those overs. It looked a forlorn hope for the youthful visitors but they stuck to their task and Theo Andrew took a smart catch in the deep off the bowling of Hill to see Ganner dismissed for 17.
This brought Joshua Davidson to the crease but with the game back in the melting pot somewhat, a costly 11th over from spinner Tom Wild swung things back in favour of the hosts. Davidson then punished further bad balls in the next two overs, including a huge 6 off a full toss from Mohsin Umar and the game was all but over.
All the Norden bowlers struggled with their length throughout the game but credit to Middleton for putting the bad balls away and going on to win by 9 wickets.