PETER STAFFORD: Hats off to Heaton’s kids
11:00pm Friday 30th July 2010 in Sport By Peter Stafford
BEFORE I go on to deal with last weekend’s cricket, I must add my congratulations to those of everyone else at League level towards Heaton, whose two junior sides, the Under-15s and U-13s have achieved so much this season at county and, hopefully, national levels.
Mention must be made of the two team managers, Peter Cross and Dave Parkinson, whose twin sons, Matt and Callum, are two of the rising stars at Lower Pools.Last Sunday. incidentally, the U15s won the Mervyn Porter Trophy when they overcame Westhoughton to regain the title they last won in 2008. It’s looking like glory days are ahead for the Heaton club.
Another rainy day on Saturday saw a mixture of abandonments and revised targets yet again. Probably the most important victory belonged to Farnworth, whose defeat of their near-neighbours opened up the top of the table to the extent that Dave Morris’s side now stands a mere six points behind Farnworth Social Circle. Wins for Horwich and Walkden improved their chances but, in the game I saw at Kearsley, Greenmount slipped back and now have a lot of catching up to do. They batted first at Springfield Road, but never really gained any momentum, and I had to keep reminding myself that I was watching a 50-over game, and not a four-day match. Kearsley never had the need to make any bowling changes as Mather and deputy pro Kabir kept a tight rein on the Greenmount batsmen. For obvious reasons, I keep a close eye on wicketkeepers, and the highlight for me was the superb leg-side stumping of Andy Kerr by Rick Hamblett, coming as it did from a lifting Mather delivery which many keepers would have been relieved to prevent going for four byes.
A total of 144-9 was never going to be enough, especially with the visitors lacking the holidaying Phil Heaton in their attack. While his partner Mark Stewart did his level best with 3-39 from 20 overs, it was man of the match Pete Morris who assured Kearsley of six points with an excellent 61. Since he moved up the order to open with Jon Carter, Pete’s batting has improved tenfold, and he now has 653 runs to his name with just less than half a season remaining.
The weather relented on Sunday for Farnworth’s eagerly-awaited clash with Bamford Fieldhouse for a place in the last eight of the National KO Trophy. It turned out to be a game of “ifs”. If Farnworth had taken any one of the three straightforward skied chances during Bamford’s innings, and if Adil Nisar had scored runs, any runs, then the local side might have progressed. But it wasn’t to be. Simon Marshall, one of three former Lancashire players employed by the visitors, batted beautifully for his 113, while another, Warren Hegg, remembered in the Bolton League for his days at Tonge, hit a rapid and unbeaten 46 towards the end of the innings, which ended on 264-7.
But the biggest blow of all came with the first ball of Farnworth’s reply, when Nisar, playing the most un-Nisar-like and unprofessional shot, was caught at mid-on from a fairly short delivery. After this match-turning moment Jason Swift batted superbly, helped along the way first by Jonathan Davies and later by Paul Rayment, but his 115 came to an end when victory was on the horizon, but leaving just too many for the Farnworth tail to accumulate and they were bowled out for 249.
It had, however, been a great game to watch with an abundance of excellent cricket, but one which left Farnworth’s diehard supporters murmuring to themselves as they left the ground “If only, if only . . .”
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