Wells upbeat despite defeat
RUNCORN Cricket Club’s first XI were unable to set a winning tally on Saturday as they were chased down by Haslington and suffered defeat.
Skipper James Wells won the toss and chose to bat but Runcorn were bowled out for 188 and Haslington produced a strong performance to claw them back – posting a game-winning 191-5.
Wells admitted he felt his side were just short of their intended target but there were some pleasing individual performances.
Jordan Grobbelaar finished on 81 and was unlucky not to hit his first century for Runcorn. Wells also notched 32 and Sam Rowland rounded off a good batting display with 22 runs.
“I won the toss and chose to bat because the conditions looked great.
“It wasn’t meant to be though as their bowlers struck early taking Patrick Tyrrell and then Dan Booth,” said Wells.
“We were struggling at 6-2 off just two overs but myself and Jordan Grobbelaar built a partnership to get us back in a strong position.
“I was caught on 32 with the score at 84 but Jordan carried on with his innings and was supported well by Will Magee (12) and Jack Beech (14) before their wickets fell too.
“Jordan fell with him 19 runs shy of his first century for the club but it was a very good innings for him and a well-deserved 81.
“We finished on 188 all out which was probably 20-30 runs short of what I would have been happy with.
“We struck early with the ball too when their score was only nine and Jordan was swinging the ball well.
“After a bit of a dry spell, Matty ● Runcorn’s Jordan Gobbelaar races in to bowl against Haslington last Saturday Tyrrell came on to bowl and he had an immediate impact taking the other opener who looked pretty set.
“He had a great spell but after drinks, Haslington seemed to push on and we needed a break.
“Matty Drury came onto bowl and also struck immediately.
“However, Haslington’s skipper seemed in a rush and he went on to score 36 off just 26 balls and that essentially gave them the win.”
Not only was Wells pleased by some individual performances on Saturday, he feels his side have already shown improvement since the start of the season. He hopes Runcorn can carry that through to their next league fixture which is against Middlewich this Saturday.
“It was a great game for the neutral and it could have gone either way so we need to take confidence from that,” said Wells.
“Our bowlers did a great job and worked hard to keep the runs down which was definitely a positive. Our fielding has also improved from a few weeks ago and the standard was great.
“We’ve still made a strong start to the season too despite not picking up a victory.
“We still took 13 points from the game on Saturday meaning we are only 14 points behind first place.
“We’ll go to Middlewich at their place and hopefully we can put some more points on the board.
“They have recently come down from the county league but we are hoping to do the business and we have a full squad available too.” WIDNES boss Denis Betts believes a Ladbrokes Challenge Cup run could be a real positive for his team as they prepare to visit Warrington Wolves in the sixth round on Sunday afternoon.
There will be those who think the Vikings have enough on their plate given their travails in Super League at the moment. They currently lie at the foot of the table with just 10 games remaining to try to work their way out of the bottom four and avoid a fight to retain their top flight status through the Qualifiers.
Were Widnes to be knocked out at this stage of the cup, they would get a couple of weeks off down the track which might be seen as a chance to freshen the players up.
That’s not how Betts sees it, however, and his players will be going all out against the Wolves
He said: “The Warrington game is massive for us. It’s one of those games where you could say the season hinges. The Challenge Cup offers us the chance to give something to our supporters.
“And what better way to start in the competition than against your biggest rivals. If you can’t get up for this type of game you’re in the wrong profession. “That’s the message this week.” The Wolves’ last outing was almost the mirror image of the Vikings’. While Widnes gave up a 22-point lead to go down 33-22 to Hull, Tony Smith’s Warrington side overturned a 14-0 deficit to thrash St Helens 40-18.
Betts knows he needs an 80-minute performance from his charges this week and he believes they have the strength of character not to let the nature of the Hull defeat affect their confidence too much. He’s also aware that stopping Warrington getting the sort of relentless ‘go-forward’ they achieved against Saints is a must.
He added: “In terms of confidence, it depends how we handle the build up to the game this week. It’s about how we apply ourselves and carry on from the good things we did last week.
“If you want to be a top side you have to realise it’s an 80 minute game. We put a really good 40 minutes together against Hull but at the end of the day we got no reward for it.
“After the game, the players moped around for about 40 minutes but when we had some individual chats with them, they recognised there was some good stuff in there.
“We need to build on that and really put a performance together this week. Warrington have got the likes of Matty Russell, Stefan Ratchford and Ryan Atkins who are all pretty good at jumping out of dummy-half. They work hard at that and then they have the likes of Chris Hill coming on the back of it. Warrington look to get you on the back foot before getting the ball to the players who can beat you one-on-one.”
Sunday’s game, which will be screened live on BBC2 (kick-off 3pm), is a repeat of last year’s Challenge Cup quarter-final tie which saw Warrington scrape through 20-18.