Bolly ease back onto right track
BOLLINGTON returned to winning ways in the league on Saturday with comfortable victory at home against Warrington.
The visitors won the toss and elected to bat in conditions that seemed to be more favourable to bowling.
This proved to be the case in the early stages of the innings as the Warrington openers found runs hard to come by.
This pattern continued throughout the innings as a steady flow of wickets fell throughout the innings with all bowlers contributing throughout. Opening bowlers Jerome
Jones (3-19) and Jack Ward (2-26) along with Stuart Plant (2-23) bowled the majority of the overs as the visitors were bowled out for 99.
Bollington’s run chase was comfortable throughout as they never looked like they would struggle to reach their target, which they did just 3 wickets down with 20 overs to spare. Rick Hough top scored for the home side with 37.
This victory sees Bollington extend the gap to third place in the league in their push for promotion.
On Sunday, Bollington welcomed Liverpool Premier League Side New Brighton to the recreation ground for their first ever Cheshire Cup Semi-Final.
New Brighton won the toss and elected to bowl first in conditions that once again looked to be bowling friendly.
This proved to be the case as Bollington’s top three were all dismissed in quick succession reducing the home side to 19-3. This meant Bollington had to rebuild early in their innings to give themselves a chance of posting a competitive total.
However, this was difficult as New Brighton’s bowlers made it difficult for Bollington to score runs consistently whilst wickets also fell at regular intervals.
The home side managed to reach 116 all out from 38 overs with Sebastian Botes being the pick of New Brighton’s bowlers, finishing with 3-32 from his eight overs.
This gave Bollington a chance, however, their bowling and fielding would have to be exemplary.
New Brighton’s chase got off to steady start, reaching 31-0 before Bollington’s spinners were introduced into the attack. Stuart Plant (2-19) made the breakthrough before taking another wicket shortly after to leave the visitors 46-2, still 71 short of their target.
Toby Phipps (2-25) then took a further wicket with the score on 69. However, it would take something special from Bollington to win from this position.
Despite this, they kept fighting and took a further three wickets, through Phipps, Jerome Jones (1-32) and Tom Horsfield (1-11) to keep the pressure on New Brighton throughout the innings.
However, the visitors reached their target with four wickets in hand to reach the Cheshire Cup Final. The game was played in front of an excellent crowd at the Recreation Ground that created an electric atmosphere throughout and offered brilliant support to the Bollington players during the day.
Despite the defeat, Bollington can still be extremely proud of their performance, which was excellent with the ball and in the field, and on the competition as a whole.