Wells happy to show no Mersey
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RUNCORN Cricket Club’s first XI returned to winning ways last Saturday with a fairly comfortable victory over Ashton-on-Mersey.
After winning just one of their previous four fixtures, Runcorn were looking to recapture the good form they showed at the start of the season.
It returned on Saturday and captain James Wells was delighted his side were able to see the game out with little fuss.
“It was definitely good to get back to winning ways. It was long overdue really,” said Wells.
“Ashton-on-Mersey have often been our bogey team so we were a little nervous but we produced a really good performance and we were all very pleased.
“It was great to be able to keep their score down and they were the first side we’ve been able to bowl all out so far this season which is another bonus.
“We performed well with our bowling and we were excellent in the field. Our batting was great too and the scoreline shows that.
“We never looked like losing the game.”
As well as a solid team performance, there were some standout performers and Wells had praise for overseas bowler Jordan Grobbelaar, once again.
The all-rounder has been the pick of the bowlers for Runcorn so far this season and it was another good performance on Saturday as he racked up four wickets off 32 runs.
There was also a significant return to the squad from Roger Watt who has been absent since the start of the season.
Watt – who came in to bat at number seven – took his tally up to 29 runs and finished the game not out following a solid performance at the crease.
“Jordan [Grobbelaar] took those four wickets and he bowled really well. There were a couple each for the other bowlers which were bonuses too,” said Wells.
“Batting wise, Will McGee and Roger Watt performed well.
“We had Roger returning from injury and he saw the game out for us.
“It was great to have him back because we have a very young squad and he’s one of the older ones like me, even though we’re still fairly young too.
“He brings that extra bit of experience we sometimes need.”
On Saturday, Runcorn return to action when they entertain Irby at Moughland Lane and Wells is hoping to take advantage of their opponents’ disappointing form.
Runcorn will be without allrounder Ben Clissold again though but Wells is confident his side can pick up back-to-back wins.
“Irby seem to have struggled so far so we’ll go into the game with lots of confidence.
“We want to get a big score and pick up a lot of points,” said Wells.
“Hopefully we can get the victory because we’re sat in jointsecond at the moment and it would be great to take that extra step in the table.
“If we can start to build a gap that would be brilliant for us.
“We’ll just do our best and see what happens.
“Ben Clissold is in and out of the team at the moment due to work commitments so he’ll probably be absent.
“Other than that we should have everyone else available and a strong team for Saturday’s game.”