Triumphant T20 for Hawk Green
ON a day where the weather was kind and the sun shone, the Derbyshire and Cheshire League held their T20 Offside Trust Finals day at Dinting cricket club.
The finalists were Dinting, Hayfield, Mottram and Hawk Green. The opening semi-final was between Dinting and Hayfield, with Hayfield crossing the winning line in the 20th over.
The second semi-final between the two league leaders proved to be equally exciting. Mottram batted first and after an excellent start from their top three batsmen were 91-1 at the halfway stage.
But the Greens bowlers stuck to their task and reeled the batsmen in and the innings finally closed on 140-8.
The Green made hard work of chasing the total down but eventually scored the winning run off the final ball of the allotted 20 overs.
The final between Hayfield and Hawk Green started very badly for the Green as their openers Josh Hampson and Jordan Henderson were both dismissed for 1, 9-2. Peter Richards, 22, and Jack Needham, 13, slowly started to repair the damage and at the halfway stage the score was 71-4 with Ben Littler and skipper Josh Hampson at the crease and the Green were looking at a total of possibly 140.
But Hayfield’s captain made an error in judgement when he bowled his first four bowlers out and had to find a sixth, which enabled Unsworth and Littler to take the total to a competitive 176-5 with the former closing on an excellent 48 from 27 balls, and Littler on a magnificent 68 from 52.
Hayfield lost their first three wickets with just 18 runs on the board but for a short while their Aussie, Liam Ward-Armstrong gave them a little hope in partnership with Dave Aldridge.
However, once Aldridge was removed, bowled Jordan Henderson, the remaining batsmen gave Ward-Armstrong no support at all and he was finally out for 36 with the score on 82-7.
The innings closed on 88, a fine victory for the Green in this inaugural competition.
An event very well supported and at the presentation Chris Unsworth from the Offside Trust presented the trophy to Hawk Green skipper Unsworth.