Langley bounce back despite scare

LANGLEY CC CHRIS PATTISON

A SMARTING Langley XI travelled to Over Peover looking to bounce back after their humiliation at the hands of bottom side Winsford last week.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bat.

The duo of Pattison and Johnson started brightly, 15 off the first four overs before a false stroke from Pattison brought his innings to an early end.

Letven joined Johnson and the pair went about building a solid base.

Letven then fell to Tucker as Bodimeade took a nice catch off a forceful drive.

Hobbs then met the solid-looking Johnson in the middle, the latter moved with calculated class to a well-deserved half century, the big man continuing his recent run of form.

Then came the introduction of Nightingale for the hosts. Good work saw Johnson caught and bowled for 54.

Brown’s miserable run of form continued as he was stumped for a second ball duck.

Betteridge joined the fast-scoring Hobbs and looked to build a late innings partnership.

However, thoughts of this were quickly extinguished as a mix up in the middle saw Hobbs run out, 37, neat work again from Nightningale.

The usual Langley wobble saw them on 119-6 off 35 overs. Some late order runs from Berzins (11), and Turner (10 no) saw them post a competitive 147-9 off their 45 overs.

After tea the Langley lads took to the field in hope of finding their fifth away win of the season. Just like their batting innings the start was lively with Betteridge into his rhythm early. He found the outside edges of both openers bats, Nightingale (0) and Gosling (13).

Youngster Turner, on the other hand, struggled to find his line and length, blaming the end he was bowling from for his results, he was swiftly replaced by the wily, miserly Frame. It didn’t take Frame long to take his first wicket trapping Bodimeade (8), for LBW.

At 44-5, Peover looked in deep trouble, a partnership between all-rounder Tucker and captain Stubbs looked to dig them out of this hole, but when Tucker was bowled by Frame and a another scintillating delivery from Betteridge saw Goldstraw depart, they were in all sorts of trouble at 69-7 off 27.

Two more deceptive deliveries from Frame saw Ingarjolla and Nightingale both dismissed and at 82-9 the game looked over.

Step forward Stubbs, the Peover captain, who decided the best way to chase down the Langley total was singlehandedly.

Hitting the Langley attack to all parts of the ground with a couple of big sixes, there were a few nervous faces in the field as Stubbs had taken his side to within 10 runs of the Langley total.

He finally fell for 71 as Letven took a composed catch off the bowling of Betteridge to complete his five-wicket haul.

Peover all out for 136.