Pitch perfect as S&B take third place
Liverpool Competition Love Lane League: Group A: Southport & Birkdale 251 for four (40) beat Fleetwood Hesketh, 111 (30.3) by
140 runs
VEN spectators with long memories could not recall seeing Trafalgar Road looking better than it did on the final Saturday of the 2020 season.
The weather was perfect, as it so often is in September, and Adam Phillips’ cricketers celebrated the occasion with a comfortable victory over Fleetwood Hesketh in the 3rd/4th place play-off in the Love Lane League.
But S&B’s members had even greater reason to be grateful to Phillips on this perfect afternoon in late summer.
Helped by his father, Steve, he has been responsible for restoring the outfield to its former glory and their work, along with the herculean efforts of Colin Maxwell on the square, have produced a ground of which any club in the country would be proud.
And on Saturday S&B’s cricketers ended a season for which all of them can be grateful by posting a formidable 251 for four and then dismissing their opponents for 111.
Five bowlers enjoyed success but no one took as many wickets as Tobias Lea, who has seized almost his every opportunity over the last nine weeks.
ES&B
Phillips c Wincer b Wallbank ............................................................... 12 I Lea c Rimmer b Wincer ....................................................................... 40 Carney b Murphy ....................................................................... 63 Holliday lbw Wincer ...................................................................... 26 Skelton not out ................................................................................. 56 May not out ................................................................................... 31 Extras .............................................................................................................................. 23 TOTAL (for 5 wkts. decl.) ......................................................................... 251 FoW: 1-20 2-70 3-100 4-194
Gregory 8-0-49-0 Wallbank 7-0-49-1 Wincer 8-3-35-2
Thomas 8-2-34-2 Halsall 4-0-36-0 Murphy 5-0-43-1
FLEETWOOD HESKETH
Wincer c Phillips b Holliday ....................................................................... 26 Shukla c Firth b Warhurst ...................................................................... 6 Regan c May b Warhurst ......................................................................... 2 Halsall b Holliday ........................................................................... 10 Rimmer b Firth ................................................................................... 6 Preston b Cunningham .................................................................. 3 Rigby b Cunningham ................................................................... 0 Gregory b T Lea ............................................................................ 13 Murphy b T Lea .............................................................................. 17 Thomas c Phillips b T Lea ............................................................................. 4 Wallbank not out ............................................................................... 0 Extras .............................................................................................................................. 23 TOTAL ........................................................................................................................... 111 FoW: 1-16 2-39 3-64 4-65 5-72 6-72 7-89 8-89
9-94 10-111
Warhurst 8-2-29-2 Gailey 6-2-20-0 Holliday 4-0-16-2
Cunningham 6-0-21-2 Firth 1-1-0-1 Lea 4.3-2-11-3
Phillips 1-0-12-0
c I Lea
The batting made for pleasant viewing, too.
Isaac Lea played well for his 40 runs, Sam Holliday’s drives through the V were as good as any played at Trafalgar Road this summer and Jack Carney helped himself to another fifty.
There was even time for Harry May to stroke a couple of sixes over long-off and for Dean Skelton to threaten the safety of spectators by clubbing a six which went straight into the Tennis Pavilion and out again.
Defending a total of 240 in a 40-over match, S&B’s bowlers found little difficulty in sealing the win.
There were two wickets apiece for Holliday, Andy Warhurst and Chris Cunningham but spectators saw just one over from Chris Firth, a wicket maiden.
Constrained by similar rationing, men still enjoy their savouries from Beluga.
And so S&B ended a season in which they had played eight competitive matches winning five, losing two and being frustrated by the weather in the other.
All the games have been local derbies, a necessary surfeit alas, but many of the club’s younger players, in both first and second teams, have had chances they would not otherwise have enjoyed had a full season of Premier League cricket been possible and all the club’s pre-season signings been engaged.
It has, therefore, been a productive summer and a far better one than most people thought we might enjoy.
Southport and Birkdale’s second team also ended their season in pleasing style when they defeated Fleetwood Hesketh by six wickets at Sea Cop.
Tom Baybutt’s bowlers dismissed their hosts for 56 in 25 overs with seven bowlers, including Mark Fletcher, taking a wicket. S&B then knocked the runs off in 17 overs, David Aston finishing the season, as he has so many others, not out.
In the final of the Love Lane League a patient innings by Wim van der Walt enabled Southport Trinity to defeat Ainsdale by three wickets at Liverpool Road.
Replying to the home side’s 193 for eight in 45 overs, the visitors reached their target with two balls to spare, van der Walt finishing unbeaten on 92.