Park put paid to
CHESHIRE CUP SECOND ROUND
ON Sunday a youthful Macclesfield CC 1st XI took on Oulton Park CC 1st XI in the second round of the Cheshire Cup.
After winning the toss, skipper Chris Moores elected to bat on a fantastic wicket.
Still riding high after the victory against Toft in the previous round, Macc didn’t get off to the best start with opener Mitch Moores being bowled early on.
Alex Griffiths and Pete Barron looked to rebuild until Griffiths was well caught at square leg attempting a pull shot.
This brought to the crease debutant Sam Buckingham who set about the task of upping the scoring rate with ease, playing some glorious shots through both the offside and legside. The pair added 72 until Buckingham was unfortunately bowled by Danny Leech with the ball keeping low; Buckingham finishing agonisingly short of his 50 departing for a well-made 48.
This brought fellow youngster Miles Bradshaw to the crease who carried on where Buckingham left off and accelerated the scoring with Barron. Barron passed 50 with some classy stroke play and fantastic running.
When Bradshaw departed for a solid 31, Macclesfield were 164-4 and looking to push on towards a big total. A flurry of wickets fell and with one over to go, Barron was left with the unlikely task of hitting 20 off the final over to reach triple figures.
With a masterclass in picking the gaps being shown, he fell agonisingly short on 97* with Macclesfield finishing on 220-7 off their 45 overs.
Barron’s innings was one of real finesse and a fine example of how to construct an innings with some intelligent shot selection and determined running which anchored the Macclesfield innings together.
With the weather clouding over, Macclesfield opening bowlers Otis Palmes and Chris Moores set about trying to pick up early wickets against a strong opening partnership.
Oulton Park got off to a fast start and it wasn’t until young off-spinner Jack Massey came on and removed Cheshire Captain, Leech, that Macclesfield managed to get the breakthrough with the score at 65.
Oulton Park carried on applying the pressure and the next wicket didn’t fall until the score had been roughly doubled, Massey again the wicket taker bowling the number 3 batsman.
The rest of the other bowlers toiled with no luck and it wasn’t until Palmes came back on for a second spell that Macclesfield managed to get another breakthrough.
A well-executed short ball was pulled straight to Alex Griffiths at square leg who held onto the catch to dismiss opener East for a well-made 64.
Unfortunately for Macc, the runs were flowing at the other end with Jamieson getting into his groove.
When Palmes dismissed Douglas LBW for 6 it gave Macc a glimmer of hope, however it wasn’t to be with Oulton Park chasing the total four wickets down and with seven overs remaining.
However, one massive positive was the bowling performance of off-spinner Jack Massey who bowled with control and guile to collect figures of 2-57 off his 9 overs.
Macclesfield CC 1st XI continued their league campaign away at Sale CC on Saturday.
The hosts won the toss and elected to field first. The home side started very well reducing Macc to 5-3 inside the first few overs, as Alex Griffiths, Peter Barron and Rob Porter all fell to the left-arm seam bowling of Tyrone Lawrence.
Macc then recovered