S&B turnaround a delight to see
MI Dental Liverpool Competition: First Division: Southport and Birkdale (25pts), 84-2, beat Fleetwood Hesketh (1pt) 83 by eight wickets IT is two months since Southport and Birkdale’s first team lost a league match. After being defeated in five of their first seven games, they have now won five of their last six and, heaven help us, they are third in the First Division table.
Their latest victory was achieved on Saturday afternoon when they beat Fleetwood Hesketh, rather comfortably, by eight wickets.
Yet back in the gloom of May, Derek Sykes’ team were one of three sides who bowled S&B out for less than 80. The specific totals were 78, 77, 79. Taken together, they sound rather like a number you ring in an emergency.
Sometimes it is only facts which prevent you getting a little giddy.
The leading six sides in the First Division are now covered by 29 points and over the next month S&B will play four of those teams.
There is therefore a chance, albeit still a slim one, of the Trafalgar Road team returning to the ECB Premier League. Which will be jolly pleasant for them, of course, but may also bring problems by the bucketload.
Yet even if S&B end the season swathed in mid-table respectability, their achievement in picking themselves up has been something to see and it was probably appropriate that the laurels of perhaps their best win of the campaign were taken by the skipper.
Chris Firth bowled at his very best on Saturday collecting eight wickets for 36 runs in 15.3 fine overs of off spin. He has now taken 43 First Division wickets at an average of 9.81.
Yet while Firth has led the revival, he knows that a captain cannot take a team anywhere its players do not wish to go and that desire is often expressed in fielding.
S&B’s basic skills in this vital department of the game were often lacking earlier in the season, yet on Saturday, Firth’s fielders held the vast majority of their chances and gave their skipper the support any spinner needs.
Whether it was Nick Knight taking catches at short leg and deep midwicket, Wim van der Walt removing Derek Sykes at slip or Dean Skelton pouching three catches behind the stumps, S&B fielded in a manner which capitalised upon their opponents’ indecision.
And this determination to succeed has helped to cultivate the confidence needed in any successful sports team. That buoyancy was shown most clearly on Saturday when S&B’s batsmen made light of scoring a total which, earlier in the season, might have defeated them.
It was only late June when S&B’s batsmen struggled to amass 99 to beat Maghull.
On Saturday they took 11.4 overs to knock off 83 against Fleetwood Hesketh, Adam Phillips hitting 52 not out off 31 balls and Chris Brownlow ending the game with a colossal six off Marasinghe Perera.
On Saturday S&B visit Sefton Park, which will be a fine test on one of England’s loveliest grounds. Andy Warhurst, having attended more festivals than Bob Dylan, will return to a side which seems ready for the challenges ahead over the next seven Saturdays.