Langley’s soft centre exposed by Appleton

LANGLEY 1st XI entertained third place Appleton at the weekend and once again their frailties with the bat surfaced as they were well beaten.

Skipper Frame won the toss and with double points on offer, he had no choice but to bat.

Langley got off to a poor start as Gregory (1) was adjudged LBW with the score on 6.

Hobbs joined Pattison and the duo fought back, pushing the score to 55 until Hobbs skied to deep mid on and was caught for 21.

The innings then fell apart as Luke Cartwright (0) was caught behind, the in-form Pattison (40) lofted to long off where he was well caught on the edge and Wheelton (0) was bowled first ball. Potts (8) fell in the same fashion and Nadin (0) was caught at deep mid wicket.

Betteridge (23) showed defiance until he was caught at deep mid on, Turner (1) chipped back to the bowler and skipper Frame (1) was the last man out, bowled attempting a big hit.

The homeside had lost nine wickets for 47 runs, four of which were caught on the deep, Rashid 5-11 was pick of the attack.

After a superb tea form Mrs Cartwright, Turner and Betteridge opened up and the former struck early as Wright (6) top edged to fine leg and Gregory took a good catch.

Hurst and Sharif saw off the new ball and pushed the score to 33.

Adam Cartwright then trapped Hurst (9) LBW. Sharif took the attack to Langley, hitting 33 until he was bowled by Frame with the score on 65.

It was left to the Lomas brothers, Tom (40no) and Dave (18no) to take Appleton to an easy win as they reached 107-3 off 27.4 overs.

The Langley bowlers tried hard but had too small a total to defend, Adam Cartwright 1-17 off four overs, Turner 1-19 off seven overs and Frame 1-27 off seven overs took the wickets.

Langley dropped to 11th place and face the real threat of relegation. Skipper Frame was left bitterly disappointed: “We were in a good position on 55-1. Hobbs’ dismissal was crucial, the middle order, no matter who bats there, have struggled all year and today was no exception, we fell apart, too many players gave their wicket away.

“The bowlers tried hard but defending 100 on that wicket was always going to be tough.

“We face a real struggle now, it’s a massive game at Wayfarers next week.”