Depleted Boro run leaders so close
LITTLEBOROUGH’S promotion hopes took a hit when they went down in the last over to league leaders Colne on Sunday at a bright Hare Hill.
It was a fantastic effort as they went into the game without three front line bowlers in Lewis Wilman, Clinton Perren and Joe Smith Butler who were all missing for one reason or another and their plight was not helped when leading wicket taker Ryan Miskella limped out of the attack after just two overs.
But messrs Joe Kershaw, Gary Nash, Zac Perren and Lewis Eadsforth did not let the side down and did their captain proud when thrown the ball.
Littleborough won the toss and elected to bat on a decent looking wicket.
The opening pair were going along nicely before Matthew Hernon was unluckily run out when Perren’s straight drive was deflected onto the stumps by Hakin in his follow through to leave the home side 14/1.
Travis Townsend started very brightly and was strong on anything that strayed onto leg stump but with the score on 38 he played a loose shot and got a leaning edge to a full toss from James Price and was snaffled up at short extra cover and was dismissed for 16.
This brought Miskella to the wicket and he and Perren put together an excellent partnership and had put on 54 before Miskella over balanced stretching forward and was stumped for 19 tweaking his hamstring in the process with the score on 91 with Perren on 40 at the other end looking well set.
Alex Willis was next in and could never get going before falling for 8 off 27 balls before edging to slip off Lambert but just before he was dismissed he was there to witness Zac Perren bring up his second half century of the season an excellent achievement for the 16 year old.
This brought Tom Pye to the wicket and his recent run of good form continued as he amassed an excellent 46 not out off just 36 balls including four boundaries and one maximum as the innings closed on a respectable 183/8 of the alloted overs.
Zac Perren’s mammoth stay at the crease ended when he was stumped for an excellent 61 off 131 balls including 4 boundaries.
Littleborough’s patched up attack got even patchier when Miskella limped out of the attack after just two overs with a hamstring injury as the Colne openers went on the attack from ball one amassing 51 in the first 10 overs before Kenton Rhodes drove the impressive Kershaw straight to Hernon at mid off. Shortly after that a big turning point in the match when Willis dropped professional James Price at cover off the unlucky Kershaw when he had only scored 1.
Price then along with opener Procter made the home side pay as they took the score to 144 before Procter fell one short of his half century snapped up behind the stumps by Daniel Tweddle by Townsend.
The home skipper was in the action again as he ran out Spokes for 3 to leave the visitors 160-3 with 6 overs left.
Eadsforth was introduced into the attack late in the day and he did not let the skipper down trapping Price in front for an excellent 63, he then had Walker caught at long off and when Kershaw had Braithwaite caught at backward point Littleborough sniffed an unlikely victory.
With two overs remaining Colne still needed 15 to win with 4 wickets remaining.
The penultimate over went for 7 leaving 8 needed for victory.
The good news for Colne was Hakin was eyeing up the short off side boundary and eye it up he did as he smashed a six and a four off the first 2 balls to lead his side to victory with just 4 balls to play for.
This was a fantastic fighting effort for this young depleted Littleborough side who should be very proud of themselves.
All is not lost and there is still plenty to play for but first of all they must get 12 points next Saturday when they travel to play Milnrow.
A final mention and a thank you to the volunteers who helped stage a very successful music festival on the cricket ground on Saturday with over a 1000 music goers in attendance.
The day after you couldn’t even tell there had been such an event the day before. Littleborugh Cricket Club is very much going in the right direction both on and off the field and I firmly believe that the people of Littleborough should get behind the club and make it the focal point of the community.