Dan-tastic effort sees club record broken
AN astonishing batting performance by Dan Booth was the highlight of Runcorn Cricket Club’s matches last weekend.
Booth made his mark in the club’s third-team clash at home to Macclesfield at Moughland Lane on Sunday afternoon.
Home skipper Ryan Richardson won the toss and decided to have a bat on a very good track.
Runcorn’s opening batsmen, Booth and youngster Tom Drury proceeded to get straight into the Macclesfield bowling attack.
In perfect conditions for cricket, Booth especially began to show the form he has enjoyed this season with the bat.
His 50 came up in no time and with Drury ably supporting him, a century definitely looked on the cards.
Macclesfield made changes to their attack, but to no avail as Booth continued to dispatch deliveries to all corners of the ground.
Drury finally went after a great innings of 43 caught off the bowling of Gold. Another of Runcorn’s promising youngsters Jake Woodruff came in at three, and continued where Drury had left off by supporting Booth.
Booth’s century came and went, and he was soon homing in on 150.
This was soon passed and the Macclesfield team were beginning to look a little disheartened.
Woodruff continued to bat excellently and on another day his 50 not out would have taken the headlines.
But it was Booth who was making the headlines finally reaching a club record of 180 not out in just 29.1 overs.
His innings included an amazing 29 fours and four sixes will not be forgotten in a hurry by those present.
After all that, it was not surprising that Macclesfield were a happy to get off the field for tea.
At the resumption of play the Runcorn bowlers soon got a breakthrough when opener Morris went for a duck, bowled by veteran Chris Royle.
Fellow opener Potts was the only Macclesfield player to offer any serious resistance finishing on 50 not out.
All the Runcorn bowlers enjoyed suc- ● cess with the ball but it was Jack Swanson who shone, grabbing four wickets including a hat-trick.
He returned magnificent figures of 4-1 from five overs, of which four were maidens, as Macclesfield were bowled out for just 90.
The previous afternoon, Runcorn’s first XI travelled down the M6 to Haslington having managed to negotiate the usual roadworks and delays to arrive in plenty of time to look forward to a great day’s cricket.
Haslington won the toss and asked Runcorn to have a bat first.
Runcorn’s opening batsmen, Jordan Grobbelaar and Joe Ruane, were hoping to get off to a good start.
Unfortunately for Runcorn, however, Ruane went cheap, and it was up to new batsman Ben Clissold to step in and get things back on track. He and Grobbelaar did just that by putting on 60 for the next wicket before Clissold went for 33, caught by Rob Coombes off the bowling of Joel Unsworth.
In next came skipper James Wells who had a better time with the bat than he has of late scoring 18 including three boundaries, but more importantly helping Grobbelaar and the team by moving on the score to 132-3.
Ryan Beech was next in but also went cheaply for seven. Grobbelaar continued to bat well and with Patrick Tyrrell (17) and finally Jack Beech (14) helping him along, he managed to get Runcorn to 226-7 off their allotted overs. The South African finished with 120 not out off 132 balls, including an impressive 16 fours and one six.
Runcorn were robbed of the chance to gain some valuable points and potentially extend their lead at the top of the table, when the weather dictated there would be no more play for the day.
The rain came with just four balls bowled in Haslington’s innings.
Runcorn finished up with 12 points to Haslington’s seven and only time will tell how important that might be at the end of the season.
Back at Moughland Lane on the same afternoon, Runcorn’s seconds played host to their counterparts from Haslington on another perfect day for cricket.
Runcorn’s stand-in skipper Colin Lloyd won the toss and elected to field first.
Haslington started well on another excellent batting track, with opener David France quickly getting into his stride. Unfortunately for Haslington their other batsman could not match his ability with the bat and he was losing batting partners at regular intervals.
Runcorn’s bowlers, especially Dan Booth, enjoyed a good day with the ball. He finished with figures of 3-36 from 11 productive overs. Other bowlers of note were Tom Drury who managed to grab the important wicket of France, bowling him for 104.
Haslington were restricted to 194-7 off 45 overs.
Captain Lloyd must have fancied Runcorn’s chances on such a good wicket. And he was not wrong as they got off to a good start with both Mark Cahill (24) and Mike Bowen (18) doing the business and providing the team with the perfect start.
Booth came in and quickly settled into his stride, moving the score on nicely with some excellent batting.
When he went, bowled by Joseph Mosley for 41 and was quickly followed by Matt Keenan, bowled by Mike Taylor without score, it was left up to the middle order of Alan Watt and Phil Conway to get things back on track.
This they did with some great attacking cricket which included a number of boundaries as they alternated the strike well. Watt got his half century with a lovely shot and finished undefeated on 63. Conway did not quite get his half century as he finished on 47 not out as Runcorn ran out winners finishing on 197-4 off 30 overs.
The result leaves them in second place in the table, 19 points behind paceseters Romiley.
This weekend the firsts entertain Middlewich while the second XI travel to Mobberley – both games start at 1.30pm. The thirds have no game but Runcorn fourths play host to Parkfield Liscard on Sunday afternoon. The game commences at 2pm.