S&B winning streak may keep them safe
Liverpool Gin Liverpool Competition: ECB Premier League: Southport and Birkdale (25pts), 146 for three, beat Formby (3pts), 143, by seven wickets
IT may be the hope that kills you but hope and six games of cricket are all Southport and Birkdale have left. A fortnight ago even hope seemed unlikely but the home win against Leigh and last Saturday’s fine seven-wicket success at Formby have left S&B one point above the relegation positions.
Given the players Formby may still draft into their side, not to mention the threat posed by Ainsdale, whom S&B entertain on Saturday, Firth’s cricketers may need at least a couple more wins to secure their safety but the fact that supporters can think in such terms reflects the improvements made by the team over the past month, even in the matches they have lost.
S&B are looking a more competent, cohesive unit in all three departments of the game.
This is shown in headline-grabbing achievements with bat and ball but it is revealed rather more subtly in the field.
On Saturday Firth’s side dismissed Formby for 143 partly because there was no weak link in the bowling attack but also because they took some fine catches, most notably the two to which Chris Brownlow held, one of which, at midwicket off Chris Cunningham, removed Formby’s top scorer Sam Oldham for 52.
That wicket fell on 99 and it capped a superb couple of hours for S&B, the highlight of which was probably the three-wicket burst by Angus Gailey which removed Luke Jones, Elliot Ketteringham and Ben Aitchison.
However, the ever-resourceful Tom Simpson, valuably aided by the cool defence of Jackson Darkes-Sutcliffe, hoisted Formby’s score well into three figures before Simpson was well caught on the boundary by Gailey off Firth.
Nevertheless, a target of 144 has been more than enough for S&B’s batsmen in the past and it took a fine innings from Bradley Yates, probably his best of the season, to see his side home in some comfort off a mere 32 overs.
S&B’s supporters could have been forgiven for being a trifle discomfited by this; they are not used to victory being so straightforward.
Yates made 84 not out off 106 balls, hitting 13 of them for four and a couple for six.
He put on 30 for the first wicket with Adam Phillips and another 62 for the third with Charlie Byrne, who should be learning more about the craft of middle-order batting with every innings he plays.
After Byrne was leg before to Sam Oldham for 14, Yates and Tearan Gleeson secured the victory without further loss or alarm.
S&B’s players returned to their changing room and were no doubt encouraged that almost every one of them had done something to contribute to the win. They are playing their best cricket of the season and it may yet save their skins.
S&B’s remaining fixtures: August 12: Ainsdale (H), August 19: Lytham (H), August 26: Firwood Bootle (A), September 2: Wallasey (A), September 9: Northern (H), September 16: Colwyn Bay (A).
S&B’s second team recorded their ninth victory of the season on Saturday when they defeated Leigh by four wickets. Isaac Lea took three wickets to restrict the visitors to 183 for five in 48 and the talented all-rounder then made 72 off 74 balls to help his side nearer their target. Justin Labuschagne’s sealed the win by hitting two fours and two sixes in his rapid 28 not out.
Today (August 10) MCC return to Trafalgar Road to take on Tatenda Taibu ‘s Zimbabwe Rising Stars XI, the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy. Tatenda is a former Zimbabwean wicketkeeper batsman and Test captain who has set up an academy in the UK to bring through the next generation of first-class cricketers. The game begins at 11am.