Winnington Park v Hawk Green CC

On Saturday Hawk Green travelled to Winnington Park and on winning the toss the hosts captain Alec Butcher elected to bat first and opened the innings with himself and Sam Barnes facing the Greens opening attack of skipper Jack Needham and Dylan Heginbotham. Both batsmen had problems being beaten outside the off stick but were eager to punish any balls slightly overpitched, but with the score on 31 Barnes mistimed a drive from Needham and was excellently caught by youngster Harry Fenteman for 18. Butcher was joined at the crease by Jonny Wales and the pair and moved the score to 77 when Butcher was bowled by Logan Jeffs for a patient 38, after 23 overs with the score on 80 - 2 and a competitive total seeming likely Jack Needham turned to his 2 slow bowlers first Mark Richards and secondly George Ridings who had an immediate impact by taking the wickets of Wales, 33, and Martin Evans, 9, in his first over both caught by Needham, 101 - 4. Next to fall was Stimpson brilliantly run out by Sam Clarke 103 - 5. The following 15 overs saw the Green takes a stranglehold on the game as Richards and Ridings conceded only 34 runs but, more importantly the loss of a further 3 wickets all of which were stumpings by the Greens keeper Josh Hampson who had an excellent game with the only extras conceded 3 wides, a final flurry from from from Pete Room with 38 not out saw the Winnington innings close on 164 - 8, with Ridings the pick of the bowlers with 4 - 23. The Greens reply was led by Hampson and Sam Messih against the opening attack of Joe Stimpson and Hassan Irfan and it was Stimpson who struck first bowling Messih for a duck with the last ball of his first over, he was replaced by Pete Richards who at first looked a little ring rusty following a short absence from the game until 2 consecutive fours from the bowling of Irfan appeared to boost his confidence and with the score on 19 after 6 overs he cut loose. The following 15 overs saw the Green add 137 runs as no bowler was spared from the bat of Richards with a series of 4s and maximums, throughout this carnage Hampson proved the perfect foil rotating the strike whilst assisting with some delightful shots of his own, when Richards eventually fell for a quite brutal 59 ball 96 the Greens score stood at 124 - 2. Ben Littler and Hampson took the score to 156 when the latter was unluckily adjudged Lbw for 35, Jeffs joined Littler and after playing defensively at one ball he struck the next three for 4, 4 and 6 to take the Green to victory by 7 wickets with both batsmen finishing on 14 not out and the total to 170 -3.

The Green are at home to the same opponents next Saturday wickets pitched 1-00pm and on Sunday travel to Mottram for the Regional final of the National Village Cup again wickets pitched 1-00pm.

Last Thursday Hawk Green entertained Heaton Mersey in the UK Fast league T20 competition and on winning the toss the Heatons captain elected to bat with Louis Mundin and Alex Ford facing the Greens opening attack of skipper Jack Needham and Dylan Heginbotham and it was the former who struck with the first ball of the game having Mundin Lbw, Ford followed shortly after bowled Heginbotham for 7, 24 - 2. Josh Ainscough and Damian Stringer started to rebuild the innings and whilst they had plenty of singles boundaries were hard to come by , Ainscough as to be expected was the main aggressor and when he fell for 41, 85 - 3, bowled Jordan Henderson it was left to Stringer to guide his team to a decent total. Jordan Barnett joined Stringer and was stumped off the bowling of George Ridings for 14, 108 - 4, a total of 160 had looked on the cards but Ridings and Mark Richards put the brakes on the run rate and when the final over, came with the score on 122 it was left to Stringer, facing his nemesis Richards, to improve the total, unfortunately he was bowled without adding to his score and the Heaton total closed on 123 - 7. The Greens response was led by Josh Hampson and Sam Messih against the opening attack of Ismael Khan and Amer Ilyas, the former bowling sharper and straighter than had been seen at the Green the previous Saturday when the teams met in the league and it was he who removed the first three batsmen, Hampson, 9, Messih 10 and Logan Jeffs 13. Needham and Dot Littler added 38 runs when Littler fell for 16, 79 - 4, the light was failing fast and a couple of lusty blows from Needham and Heginbotham took the total within touching distance when Needham was bowled by Abbas Shah for 34. Lee Hallas with 2 maximums sealed the victory for the Green with more than an over to spare.