Sat 14 June Bacup at home

I lost the toss and Bacup elected to bat, a strange decision really given the rain around and forecasted.

We bowled to many four balls early on and Bacup raced away at nearly 8 an over, Wes did pick up a wicket LBW but this hardly slowed the scoring. Dean O Brien bowled a good spell beating the bat on a good line and length but we really struggled to slow the scoring even Dom Egans first bowl of the season or the rain interruptions slowed the run rate.

Then the introduction of the "man of the match" Enty who promised to hold an end up and he did more than that bowling a fine spell and Sam Excell who at last found his line and length, but for some poor catching ( including his own) could have had 4 wickets, but did at least get the two senior batsmen out. The old adage of catches win matches still holds true, because one dropped catch came home to haunt us with the young man scoring a quick fire 50 most of the last 8 overs.Bacup ended 252 in 37 overs a tough ask but not an impossible one.

We lost Chris Hanham early a set back as he has been Mr dependable for us this year, then Luke wilcox, and Dave Pickup we were now 9 for 3 enter the "man of the match" our own Freddie Flintoff Enty, joined Conah Glover and a fine partnership followed with both scoring half centuries, Conah was first to go with some 9 overs remaining and us thinking we needed 60 odd then disaster, somehow between the score box and the scorers 20 runs was showing to many on the box, we now needed 80, this really took the timing of our run chase of line and dispute some fine hitting from Enty and Sam Excell ( 27) the target proved beyond us and we ended some 30 short.

Like a lot of our season its been a fine margin between winning and losing but today we gave Bacup a game with a few fine batting performances from Enty and Conah ,some passion for the game was displayed by both sides. The scorers / box must get it right, as i do believe if it had been we had a chance.

Sat 7 June Enfield home

One of the satisfying elements of being 3rd team Captain is seeing talent come through the team and Saturday saw the debut of George Bevan and a good one it was. 40 odd opening the batting is a great start to his senior career i am sure he will score many more runs in the years to come.

Back to the match and on winning the toss we batted after the loss of Conor Glover in the first over a visiting Matt Barnes settled the innings with Matt 2 nd out ,George was joined by Sam Excell this pair took the score to 100 odd before George was out for his 42, Sam soon followed for a 26, run out again, although he was a little unlucky with the stumps broken before the ball was in hand it was still a poorly judged run, still the score was 100 for 3 with some 18 overs left so a reasonable score should have been in reach but a possession of wickets left us all out for 136 with 5 overs to go. ( sorry Dean, irresponsible old Captains eyes lit up leaving me caught for 5, after my lets bat the overs speech). The two Enfield spinners did bowl well but we must bat better than this especially after the good start that we had.

Our Bowling lacked penetration with no wicket falling until Enfield were nearing their target.to many loose balls and poor catching ( sorry again Dean) but they really did not need to take chances with a low total on a good batting track. Enfield reached there target with plenty of overs to go and for the loss of 3 wickets.

We must not get to down about the loss, this team is about the lads learning about the game, we play a proper 3 rd xl, no one selected to play for the 2 nds played, we could have pulled in more experienced players and won but what does that prove does it make us a stronger club in the future ?. Each week these lads improve many of them dramatically if we stick at it the results will come.

Final word congratulations to Tom Brown on making his 1 st team debut to think he started the year in our team and following some excellent performances has made what i feel sure will be the first of many 1 xl appearances ,

Ian Excell

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