Languid display causes sour Sunday

Following the withdrawal of Caribbean B from the league, an alteration to the fixtures matched up Adwalton seconds with an away tie at Gildersome, re-arranged to a Sunday to accommodate Gildersome’s first team home match on the Saturday.

Missing some key players, the side arrived early on a hot day and were quickly taking charge as they won the toss and decided to bat. But the fall of early wickets made this look like a bad decision as openers Tom Leeming, Chris Smith and Chris Davey, on his first match back from injury, all fell with the score less than 20. With the support of Andrew Ingham, captain Mark Palfreeman steadied the ship, thwarting the Gildersome attack in the face of some tight bowling form both opposing captain Ashley Winn and Badru Patel. After a strong thirteen over spell without losing a wicket, and the game shifting towards Adwalton, Ingham eventually fell to Hanif Mansor for 21, but had played an important role. The supporting cast then waned as no one stayed in the middle for longer than six overs, leaving Palfreeman fighting a difficult battle, finishing up on a valiant 84.

With a below par score it was always going to be difficult to defend, and that quickly proved to be true. Sachin Patel continued his fine form against Adwalton, unfortunately falling on 48 from the bowling of Craig Wright. And he was joined by Joe Bownass, normally on the cusp of the first team who again fell just short of his fifty with 49. The groundwork done by the openers had taken the game away from an already despondent Adwalton side and it was only a matter of time before Gildersome passed Adwaltons total of 151.