Curtain falls in
CHAOTIC scenes marred the closing stages of Rochdale’s last game of the season against Walsden on Sunday.
Although they had just lost deputy professional Neil Hornbuckle, a dismissal which put them behind on the Duckworth Lewis calculation, Rochdale’s reply to Walsden’s 238 for 4 was still buzzing along quite nicely. They were 90 for 3 and opener Andrew Dawson had just completed a pleasing half century.
Whereupon, one of the umpires removed the bails and walked off the field, to the bewilderment of both sets of players and spectators alike.
One wondered if he had been attracted to the pavilion television set by the sound of the opening bars of the signature tune to The Antiques Road Show.
It was disclosed that the light, which was admittedly on the murky side was the cause of the hiatus
But after twenty minutes of head shaking, and with the light unimproved, the umpires returned to the field and the game restarted.
However, the incident took all the fire out of the game, like putting a wet towel over a barbecue, and within three balls Dawson, Dale’s sole hope of making an assault on the target, now reduced to 233, was out – adjudged lbw by you know who - to one from Umesh Karuraratne that spun and appeared to be missing. 90 for 4 became 90 for 5 when Ali Muzaffar became the next victim of the same bowler/umpire combination and that, to all intents and purposes, was that.
The score ticked over to 112 without the fall of further wickets, but the DLS target had ticked more quickly to 146 before the umpires once more left the field, this time with some justification as steady drizzle began to fall.
Earlier the game had followed a more traditional path as Walsden put Dale’s attack to the sword with an admirable batting performance. Josh Gale cutting the ball sweetly, made a breezy 45 before Karunaratne, the visiting professional, and Matt Dawson put on 100 for the fourth wicket - both making half centuries.
Eliot Guildford then blasted 39 in only 17 balls at the end of the innings to make Dale’s task a daunting one.
Mind you
Rochdale were their own worst enemies with five takable catches being spurned with opening bowler Aaron Brown suffering most.
His ten wicketless overs, during which he passed the bat numerous times, were worthy of some successes.
A post script to this game must be recorded, though. After the game players, spectators and umpires enjoyed a convivial drink together generally agreed that leaving the field was an ill judged call and all disappeared into the winter in good spirits.
A verdict on Rochdale’s season would be that ninth position was a fair measure of their standing in the league, but that a predicted relegation battle was avoided as much by Colne’s desperate season – they only won one game – and Crompton’s 45 points deduction as by Dale’s own abilities.
These two clubs duly go down but it is to be expected that their replacements, Haslingden and Greenmount will not provide the same buffer at the bottom of the league next year.
Walsden JP Hooson b Oddy ............................................. 1 JA Gale b Muzaffar .......................................... 45 MR Dawson c Roche b Maurice-scott.... 64 TMUS Karunaratne run out (M-scott) .... 65 JO Gale c Roche b Maurice-scott ................ 2 EC Gilford not out ............................................ 39 NJ Barker not out ................................................ 6 Extras ..................................................................... 16 Total (5 wickets, 50 overs) .......................... 238 Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Hooson), 2-75 (JA Gale), 3-191 (Dawson), 4-191 (Karunaratne), 5-201 (JO Gale) Rochdale bowling: Oddy 10 6 25 1, Brown 10 0 42 0, Muzaffar 13 0 58 1, Hornbuckle 9 1 43 0, Helliwell 2 0 20 0, Maurice-scott 6 0 42 2 Rochdale JA Maurice-scott c Brown b Shackleton... 0 A Dawson lbw b Karunaratne .................... 50 Mohammad Zaman lbw b SR Barker ........ 7 NB Hornbuckle lbw b Karunaratne ......... 18 A Muzaffar lbw b Karunaratne ..................... 7 JP Duffy not out ............................................... 14 Haris Hussain not out ....................................... 7 Extras ........................................................................ 9 Total (5 wickets, 31 overs) .......................... 112 Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Maurice-scott), 2-24 (Mohammad Zaman), 3-81 (Hornbuckle), 4-90 (Dawson), 5-95 (Muzaffar) Walsden bowling: Shackleton 5 3 8 1, Karunaratne 10 2 31 3, JO Gale 7 0 21 0, SR Barker 4 0 31 1, Hooson 5 1 19 0
Lancashire District Cup u13s Finals. Rochdale District 131/9 Bury District 130/5 Winners Rochdale District u13s. Team; Joe Gauge (captain), Kodi Sutcliffe, Zac Ayres, Oli Kirkby, Ayaanili Kanji, Umar Qureshi, Zac Saleem, Maxy Smith, Alfie Radcliffe, Sam Hicks, Will Hindley & Jake Hill.