Finale falls flat at end of positive campaign
ON a sad weekend with the country grieving the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Prestbury hosted Offerton in their last match of the season.
Offerton won the toss, batted and got off to a good start with the openers putting on 67 off 16 overs.
The Prestbury field lacked its quality of the last few weeks but skipper Steve Oldfield brought Stu Costello on to bowl and in his second over got Bates caught by Andy Scott for 19.
With the score at 91, Costello then bowled the other opener for 57.
Costello proceeded to to have Khan caught by wicketkeeper Mutha Ramanthan and Jena was out caught by Scott and Offerton were soon struggling with Sumon Ahmed getting the wicket of Hussain for 1, 96 for 5.
Another dropped catch let Offerton get to 130 before Tom Nelson bowled Smith for 13 and with the score at 138 the seventh wicket fell when
Prestbury skipper Oldfield took the first of two superb catches, off the bowling of Costello.
Teja for Offerton was scoring quick runs and reached his fifty, but Costello wrapped the innings up with the last two wickets, the last one falling to a catch by George Brindley.
It was off the last ball of the allotted 45 overs but Offerton did reach a bigger total than they should have done, finishing on 188 all out.
Prestbury wicket takers Ahmed 1 for 21, Nelson 2 for 45 and Costello – his best Prestbury figures – 7 for 46.
Prestbury had a dreadful start losing Brindley, Oldfield and Costello with the score on 12 off 10 overs.
Scott, who opened the innings, fell with the score on 29 and Max Cowling Jones was out for 4.
Ahmed also made 0 and at 35 for six things were not looking good.
New batsman Will Worswick and Ramanthan were building a partnership but with the last ball of the opening bowlers spell Worswick was caught for 31 and after that Ramanthan was out as well for 28 and the last three wickets fell for one run.
Prestbury were all out for 88 – after four wins on the bounce it was a bit of a come down but a mid table position at the end of the season will please the team, with nine wins offering lots to be positive about for next season.
May I thank Milo my little dog who accompanied me on all 20 games home and away games with me as scorer!
The seconds were up the road against Macclesfield 4th and Prestbury skipper Gabor Simon won the toss and batted.
Prestbury posted 223 for 6 with Simon again, for the second week in a row, scoting a century, 109.
He was supported by Ridley Partridge 44.
Macclesfield really struggled and were all out for 75, Prestbury wicket takers Taylor 1 for 5, Reid 1 for 7, Partridge 1 for 10, Khan 2 for 20 ,JP 2 for 17 and Adal 2 for 7.
Prestbury seconds have had a good season with one game to go cementing fourth place.
The thirds went to Bredbury St Marks, but came away with a defeat, Bredbury won the toss and posted 162 all out Prestbury wicket takers Santi 1 for 36, Al 2 for 22, Tom 2 for 18, Bobby 3 for 24, Prestbury put up a good effort and were all out for 136 with Will Worswick 22 and his Dad Andrew 12 runs his Prestbury highest score.
Many thanks to Andrew and groundsman Clive Poole for preparing good wickets during the season.