A smell of celebration
Liverpool Gin Liverpool Competition: First Division: Southport & Birkdale (25pts), 154 for three, beat Fleetwood Hesketh (3pts), 153, by seven wickets
IT was difficult to avoid the celebratory moods at Trafalgar Road on Saturday. On the field Southport and Birkdale marked the midpoint of the league season by recording their ninth win in 11 matches, thereby establishing a 50-point lead over Orrell Red Triangle at the top of the First Division.
Off the field, S&B held its second Ladies’ Day, an event superbly organised by Bev Baybutt and her small platoon of volunteers.
By late afternoon, when the cricket was over, the two events coalesced. On the patio there were ambitious hair-dos,
sweet-smelling unguents and the scent of exotic perfumes. And as it happened, some of the ladies scrubbed up quite well, too.
But the different triumphs, one sporting, the other social, were interconnected.
On a weekend when all three of S&B’s senior teams won their games it was plain that the health of the club was not to be judged solely by the current success of the first team, however pleasant that may be at the moment.
Clubs prosper, in the long term, at any rate, when the flagship side cares about the progress of the other elevens.
But that prosperity is only possible when all are supported by a vibrant membership whose social activities help pay for good facilities and modest expenditure on players who themselves understand the importance of junior development.
Chris Firth captains one team at S&B; Bev Baybutt leads another. It is as simple as that and these are good times.
As to Saturday’s game, S&B eventually ran out relatively comfortably winners, albeit that the cricket was played on a field which currently looks like the biggest rich tea biscuit in the world. Neither Firth nor Chris Cunningham bowled anything like their best but Gary Keedy held the attack together once Angus Gailey had taken his early wicket. At one stage Fleetwood He s k e t h slumped to 110 for seven but were revived by Lee Rimmer, whose 31 runs included three sixes off Keedy which were whacked either over or uncomfortably near the merrymakers on the patio. “Do you mind, “came the remonstrance from the clinking glasses, “there’s people trying to drink Prosecco over here! ” It is not the sort of thing you would have heard in Jack Walker’s day but S&B’s late chairman was a wise man and he would be pleased the old place was doing well. S&B’s pursuit of 154 was dominated, as so often this season, by Bradley Yates, whose unbeaten 83 off 82 balls took his aggregate of league runs for the season to 655. Fleetwood Hesketh’s hopes were raised when Neil Rimmer rolled back the decades to take the brilliant slip catch which dismissed Alex Trimboli, and again three balls later when Charlie Byrne played too early and was caught and bowled for nought. But Murphy’s two wickets in an over were followed by an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 77 between Yates and Harry May, the latter batting with particularly fine judgement in a situation which tested a young batsman still learning his trade. Indeed, in the Tennis Pavilion the elegance of May’s strokeplay was admired by a host of spectators, not all of whom were related to him. S&B eventually won in some ease and it is doubtful if even their optimistic supporter thought this summer would be going so well.
But on Saturday Firth takes his team to Newton-le-Willows and the following week they are at home to Wigan. Both should be tough games and absolutely nothing is settled yet.
S&B’s second team enjoyed a rather straightforward nine-wicket victory at Ainsdale.
In the first half of the game, Matthew Hennessy, a 12-year-old legspinner of immense promise with both bat and ball, took four for 40 and Sam Regan, 3-10, as the home side were dismissed for 186 in 54.2 overs. After tea, Josh Hine hit eight fours and five sixes in his 58-ball 92 while Dave Aston made an unbeaten 62 off 88 balls as Craig Todd’s team strolled home in 26.2 overs.