Palmes and Elms inspire seconds to victory
MACCLESFIELD SECOND XI BY JON CURWEN
IN the second team fixture at Upton, the home team won the toss and asked Macclesfield to bat first on a late-season and rather patchy wicket with some areas of wear.
Opening bowler Paddy Cullen threw down the gauntlet immediately, gaining a lot of seam movement from the pitch with an unconventional arm action.
Macc openers Angus Thompson and Otis Palmes found life difficult but had battled to 16-0 before Thompson was bowled and Palmes was caught soon after, both victims of Cullen.
Upton’s decision to put Macc in looked to be paying off with the visitors at 23-2 and batting looking very difficult.
Finn Nash and Harry Elms then worked hard to keep their wickets intact and to build a score and were pulling the game back towards Macc before Nash was bowled for 20, leaving the team on 57-3.
Chris Moores was dismissed soon after and the momentum was firmly back with Upton at 66-4.
Captain Tom Isherwood joined Elms and they added 31 in a careful partnership which was broken when Isherwood was caught in the covers.
Sam Hughes was also caught soon after so another double-breakthrough put Upton into the ascendency at 104-6.
Elms was joined by Henry Mitchell and together they got Macc to 132, a possibly competitive score given the help bowlers were getting from the pitch.
Elms was bowled for an important and well-compiled 53 in unusual circumstances with the bail falling in front of the stumps after the ball appeared to miss everything on the way to the keeper.
Mitchell and new bat Joe Moores then produced an effective and busy partnership, hitting the occasional boundary and running lots of scampered singles and twos. Mitchell ended on 28 and Moores 21.
Macc lost their last 3 wickets in a flurry in the last of the 50 overs for a total of 172.
For Upton Cullen was the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets 21 runs.
Will Jennings and Ben Curwen opened the bowling for Macclesfield and after a couple of rusty overs (the match was very soon after A level results day for both), each started to test the Upton openers.
Despite several play and misses and other close calls, including a run out appeal that the home team were perhaps fortunate to survive, Upton reached 27 without loss and looked to be building a platform.
At this point Curwen swung a ball back into the left-handed Talbot pinning him back and in front and the Upton captain had to go LBW.
Both Curwen and Jennings were unlucky to finish their 7 over spells without taking further wickets at which point Otis Palmes was introduced to the attack.
Palmes immediately starting to hit a testing full length at pace and soon had his first wicket, a rapid yorker hitting off stump just 2 balls after a very close LBW was turned down making the score 43-2.
For a while it looked like 2 different games were happening with the Upton batsmen much happier facing the spin of Sam Hughes at one end, scoring freely, and much less happy facing Palmes at the other as he was testing them with every ball and bowling a succession of maidens.
Palmes got further rewards with another batsman bowled and a third victim caught due to a fabulous one-handed take in mid-air by keeper Moores.
While Upton appeared to be still in the game on the scoreboard at 75-4 given the pressure they were under, Macc’s total now looked a very long way off.
The introduction of pace at both ends, with Angus Thomson brought on to partner Palmes, broke the back of the Upton reply.
Thomson claimed a caught and bowled, dismissing top scorer Callum McCormick for 30, and Palmes had Alex Woods LBW to reduce the home team to 85-6.
Luke Wilson and Paddy Cullen tried to drag Upton back into the game but 2 wickets in 2 balls by Thompson, the first bowled with a well-executed slower ball the second with a quick yorker, made the score 101-8 and Macc had victory in sight.
A fifth wicket for Palmes (clean bowled again) and a catch by Nash at mid-on off Thompson completed the job for Macc leaving Upton 108 all out in the 35th over. Thompson ended with figures of 4-19 and Palmes a highly impressive and well deserved 10-5-11-5.
This was an important win for Macclesfield 2nds, their 4th in a row, as it further lifts them clear of the relegation zone of the 2nd XI Division 1 having been bottom of the table for a sizeable proportion of the season.
The obvious highlights were the patient and stylish 50 from Harry Elms and the inspired bowling spell by Palmes.