IRBY CC v HAWK GREEN CC

Hawk Green travelled across the county to the Wirral to play Irby and on winning the toss the Irby skipper elected to field first, the Green openers, Josh Hampson and Dylan Heginbotham faced the opening attack of Sinclair and Crawford. The square, the wicket and the outfield were a credit to the groundsman and both batsmen were enjoying the conditions until with the score on 28 Heginbotham mistimed a delivery from Crawford and was caught for 10, Jordan Henderson was next to the wicket and at first was very watchful. Hampson missed a straight ball from Crawford with his personal score on 27, 39 – 2, he was replaced by skipper Jack Needham. It was at this time that Henderson decided to take the attack to the Irby bowlers and with a series of 4s and maximums, mostly straight, he started to inflict serious damage to the bowlers figures, not to be outdone Needham joined in the run fest and was actually outscoring his partner in a partnership worth 149 in just 17 overs. Needham was first to fall attempting a reverse sweep and was out LBW for 80, 188 – 3, his replacement, Logan Jeffs also took the opportunity of taking a good look at the bowlers before the fall of Henderson bowled by Crilly for 65, 190 – 3, incoming batsman Ben Littler hardly bothered the scorers as he was also bowled by Crilly for just a single, 205 – 5. Jeffs and Sam Clarke punished the bowlers even further with a series of maximums with Jeffs eventually falling for 34, and with the score on 253 – 6 and only 41 overs taken skipper Needham declared, with Clarke on 26 not out, giving the home team 49 overs to chase down the total, Crilly was the pick of the Irby bowlers with 2 - 103. The Irby response started disastrously as opener Paul Newman was out first ball LBW to Needham and his partner Overend was caught behind by Hampson off the bowling of Logan Jeffs for 5, 22 – 2, Crilly was the standing batsman and was joined by Ediriscoriya who fell for 1, 25 - 3 bowled Heginbotham. Crilly punished the odd bad delivery but for the main his only intent was to remain not out and after the fall of Povishop for 5, 51 – 4 he and new batsman Vich batted the following 22 overs for just 55 runs, little wonder there was only one home supporter, when Vich eventually fell bowled Mark Richards for 15 with the score on 106, Irby were to lose 1 more wicket, Renshaw LBW to Richards, the innings closed on 119 – 6 with Crilly remaining defiant on 81. Next Saturday the Green are at home to Heaton Mersey wickets pitched 1 – 00pm. Last Thursday the Green played their first round of the T20 competition against Stockport Trinity, Dylan Heginbotham and Ben Littler opened the innings and both started hitting the ball cleanly from the off and took the score to 130 in the 14th over when Heginbotham was bowled Cross for a magnificent 71, 130 – 1. Peter Richards joined Littler and the onslaught continued, Littler was eventually out for a quite brutal 81 and with Richards finishing on 30 not out the Greens innings closed on 196 – 3. The Trinity innings limped to 99 – 8 with only Walker 32 not out making a significant contribution and Jack Needham with 4 wickets was the leading bowler for the Green with 14 year old debutant Charlie Hallas marking his debut with a wicket.