Great Beech weather but Runcorn lose out
IT was another glorious day for cricket as the sun beat down on the crowd at Moughland Lane on Saturday. The crowds had turned out to enjoy the cricket and the World Cup football on the TV.
Unfortunately, as Runcorn and Hale Barns could not agree on an earlier start time the players had to miss England’s heroic victory against Sweden in the quarter-final booking their place in the last-four.
Hale Barns won the toss and decided to bat on a very good wicket.
The Runcorn team, already struggling this year, were further weakened by a number of players being unavailable.
And it showed, despite the home side’s valiant efforts in what were hot and difficult conditions.
The Hale Barns batsman looked comfortable on a track made for scoring runs.
Despite getting an early breakthrough when Joe Cooper was caught by David McNamara off Dan Booth’s bowling with the score on 32, Runcorn could not stop fellow opener Tommy Smith (78) and Ben Staniforth (62) from piling on the runs.
They had put on 129 before Staniforth was trapped lbw by McNamara.
It proved to be a long day in the field for Runcorn as first Khurram Hussain (40), then Campbell Vadlja (57 not out) piled on the agony.
Only the cheers from the clubhouse as England booked their place in the semifinals lifted the mood on the pitch as Hale Barns finished on 316-7 off their 50 overs.
Runcorn got off to the worst possible start when Will Magee was caught behind for by Smith for a duck offa Ben Hicks delivery.
Five more wickets followed in quick succession and Runcorn were staring at ● the possibility of being bowled out for one of their lowest-ever totals with the score on 13-5.
In at No.6 came Ryan Beech who has returned to the area after working away, and with brother Jack brought some respectability to the scoreline.
The siblings took the score onto 77 before Jack was caught by Hussain off the bowling of Cooper for 16.
Callum McCaffery, who was playing one of his first games for the first-team, came in under difficult circumstances with the game slipping away, and was bowled by a great ball by Cooper for two.
Next in was Phil Conway who is not known for the patient kind of play that is required in these situations.
Beech continued to bat well and was looking like he was going to get his cen- tury when he was caught on the boundary by Joe Fretwell-Walsh off Cooper when in hindsight nine simple singles would have got him the ton his efforts richly deserved.
Inevitably, the game soon ended with Runcorn finishing on 151 all out off just 28.3 overs.
The result gave Hale Barns 25 points to Runcorn’s five which leaves them firmly rooted at the bottom of the table on 51 points, 63 behind Weaverham.
Over at Hale Barns, Runcorn’s second XI were put into bat by the home team.
Joe Ruane, who was playing his first game this season, got the innings off to an excellent start with fellow opener Mike Jenner.
In fact, most of the team chipped in with their share of the runs, Ruane finished on 58 after being caught by Chris Colley off the bowling of James Guest.
Other scorers of note were Tom Drury (22), Matty Drury (27) and veteran Steve Foster making his comeback and scoring an excellent 29 coming in at No.5.
Runcorn finished on 186-8 off 45 overs which in hindsight was about 30 runs short of par for a wicket in this condition.
And so it proved with Hale Barns easily reaching the target with just the loss of two wickets, one each for Colin Lloyd and Andy Scowcroft. Mike Hunter led the Hale Barns batting with an undefeated 60 while James Fullerton-Batten chipped in with 41 not out.
Hale Barns bagged 20 points from the game while Runcorn collected 11. This result leaves Runcorn just below midtable on 168 points.
Runcorn’s third XI did not have a game last weekend.
This Saturday, the first XI travel to Christleton while the seconds host Woodford. Both games start at 1pm.
On Sunday the third XI are scheduled to play Caldy at home. The start time is open to change and will be announced on the club’s official Facebook site.