Silver lining for relegated Prestbury
IN the final match of the season Prestbury were at home to Winnington Park looking to finish the season with only their second win, the first one having been the opening match of the campaign.
Skipper Steve Oldfield lost the toss and Prestbury were asked to bat. Openers George Brindley and Oldfield looked solid but with 15 on the board off 9 overs the latter was caught for 4, Cameron Kirkland joined Brindley and with the score at 27 there was a misunderstanding with the batsmen and Kirkland was run out for 7. Aqeel Ahamed, Prestbury’s leading run scorer in all matches with 500 runs plus, got an unfortunate LBW decision third ball and was out for 0. Chariag Marolia came into bat and didn’t last long, bowled for 4 – 40 for 4 off 19 overs.
Brindley and new batsman Stu Costello took the score onto 68 but Brindley fell for a solid 25 off 44 balls. At the same score Costello was caught for 19, so Prestbury had two new batsmen at the wicket, Ben McKeever and Max Cowling Jones, who fell for 1 and was quickly followed Finlay Calder,1.
Rakesh Alex and McKeever took the score onto 100 but Alex was LBW for 8 so last man Alex Calder and McKeever took the score on to 121 when Calder was out for 9 leaving McKeever not out on 25 off 60 balls.
Winnington Park had 52 overs to get 122 for victory.
After tea, Prestbury had early success when Finlay Calder bowled Barnes for 1.
New batsman Wales started to push the score up to 30 and though Alex bowled Butcher runs were still coming from Wales so prestbury needed another breakthrough.
At 43 for 2 Calder caught Evans off the bowling of Marolia for 1, and Marolia kept on the pressure and bowled Amatillo for 6, so at 57 for 4 the game was in the balance.
But with a superb spell of bowlng from Marolia of 6 overs 5 maidens 5 for 6 and the 6 was a single scoring stroke, Winnington Park went from 57 for 3 to 59 for 8. He was well supported by Kirkland who then took 3 for 6 off 5 overs and Winnington Park were all out for 71 off 23 overs, Prestbury taking 25 points.
They were relegated to division 3 next year, but with juniors coming through the ranks and the leadership of Steve Oldfield I am sure we will return to division 2 soon, may I thank all the volunteers and Steve Pearson our groundsman for all the support for the club.
The seconds lost to champions Cheadle Ladybridge, but a fine innings form Ankur 61 for Prestbury was the highlight of the innings.