Hesketh in fight

Fleetwood Hesketh CC suffered a heavy defeat against league high-fliers Newton-le-Willows on Saturday in the Liverpool & Districts First Division.

Skipper Tommy Wareing won the toss and elected to field first but it was Newton-le-Willows who started off the stronger side.

Opening batsman James Smith notched up a wonderful 111 runs for Newton before Wareing bowled him out but Hesketh couldn’t prevent their number four batsman from also getting a century.

In the end, it was always going to be a tough task for Hesketh to bounce back in the second innings.

Lee Bolton and Jack Wrigglesworth put together 59 runs between them but a middle order collapse put Hesketh in a difficult position.

Ryan Thomas did his best to restore their chances but he was bowled out for 22 runs and Hesketh fell short of Newton’s tally by 134 runs.

Wareing was understandably frustrated with his side’s performance and they are now just one place above the relegation zone.

“We were poor in all areas really,” said Wareing.

“We weren’t good enough with the bat and were equally poor with the ball in hand and in the field.

“Things really need to start improving for us quickly as we’re currently in a difficult position.

“We didn’t have any stand-out performers either as nobody did well on the day and we were all very below par.

“We need to improve in all areas next week and we need to be more disciplined with the ball.

“Hopefully we can bowl to our plans and with the bat there needs to be more application.”

Despite suffering a heavy defeat, Wareing is keen to bounce back this weekend when Hesketh take on Wigan CC.

They will be looking to avoid their fourth straight defeat, while Wigan could grab their fourth victory in six games.

“We certainly need to win at least two or three of these last games to avoid relegation,” said Wareing.

“I think we are more than capable of doing that if we play how I know we can play.

“Wigan are generally a decent side though so we will need to be at our best to beat them.

“We have a few players unavailable but hopefully the lads that step in will take their opportunity and we can come away with the result we need.”