Fielding the bright note in S&B defeat
IF Southport and Birkdale continue to bowl and field as well as they did in difficult conditions at New Brighton on Saturday their Premier League future might be assured. If, on the other hand, their batsmen continue to waste promising positions as they did in the first innings of that game, their fate will probably be in the hazard.
For yet again S&B approach late August and the last five games of the Love Lane Liverpool Competition season with half an eye on the league table.
From that perspective last weekend did not go too badly for the Trafalgar Road side.
Bootle, one of their chief rivals for the two relegation spots, lost the second of the games they had in hand on Chris Cunningham’s team and now lead them by just three points with both sides having played 17 matches.
The teams meet a week on Saturday in the midst of the club’s Beer Festival and the importance of that match is plain. But it hardly needs saying that S&B must attend to their own performances over the next month or so. All of which brings us back quite neatly to Rake Lane on Saturday afternoon and the visitors’ ability to build a superb foundation of 67 without loss only to lob away all their wickets in scoring a further 69 runs.
Some batsmen were more guilty than others and it is true that New Brighton’s Jonathan Fowler offered a perfect example of how to bowl at medium pace on a reasonably helpful surface, one freshened by the light rain in which portions of the game were played.
Having batted quite beautifully in an attacking style, JJ Fielding was the first batsmen to be dismissed when he attempted to sweep Fowler and was leg before for 52.
That began a grim couple of hours in which middle-order batsmen appeared to get set but then find ways to get out rather than go on and play major innings.
It has been a theme of the season, one that has only become louder and more strident as September approaches.
But another theme of the past four months or so has been the willingness of Cunningham’s players to scrap for every run, even in tough situations, and this was also in evidence on Saturday.
Most clearly it was shown in the brilliant catches taken by Dinuka Dilshan, who also bagged three wickets, and Bobby Wincer, whose dismissal of Mark Hale left New Brighton on 87 for six, still 50 short of their target.
But at that point Fowler and Matty Thompson played precisely the type of innings S&B had needed from a couple of their batsmen and took their side home without further loss.
S&B’s fielders, though, fought for every run, just as they will have to do over the next five weeks, beginning with Saturday’s home match against Formby.
Southport and Birkdale’s second team consolidated their mid-table position last weekend with a 26-run home win over Liverpool on Saturday followed by a well-contested draw against Lytham at Church Road on Sunday.
In Saturday’s match Tom Baybutt made 54 in his side’s 133 all out before Sam Holliday with four for 46 and Michael Lightbown, three for 24 dismissed the visitors for 107. The following afternoon it was the turn of
Jack Baybutt to take a leading role with the bat by making 53 in a total of 174 for six declared that was also bolstered by Dave Aston’s 41.
Basil Sultan then took four for 41 in Lytham’s reply but the home side ended the game on 167 for nine, eight runs short of victory but with only one wicket in hand.