Wigan woe as spilt catch proves costly
THIS one hurt. Over the course of a season most Liverpool Competition teams will win some games comfortably and lose a few with time to spare but there are generally one or two close matches whose outcomes prompt particular pleasure or pain.
There is little dispute into which category Saturday’s one-wicket defeat to Wigan was placed by Southport and Birkdale’s cricketers.
Defending a clearly competitive 150 on a pitch showing the effect of last week’s rain, S&B’s spinners, aided by two crucial breakthroughs from Dinuka Dilshan, had begun the second half of the game well, reducing their opponents to 68 for four with Aaron Redmond amongst the batsmen back in the pavilion.
Chris Firth’s fine second spell then removed both John Richardson and Josh Burrows while at the other end of the Bull Hey ground Bobby Wincer had tempted Pat Howley down the pitch leaving Jack Carney to complete the deftest of stumpings.
Vinay Choudhary whacked Chris Cunningham and Wincer for big sixes but merely skied his third thrash.
Basil Sultan, as he has done all season, pocketed the catch and Wigan needed ten to win with their last pair at the wicket.
The pitch was not bumping and the light had hardly been blinding at any point in the day but the tension would have been plain to a cricketing innocent.
Wigan’s injured last man, Adam Samouelle, came out to bat accompanied by a runner. Such arrangements are often the prelude to comedic chaos but Samouelle and Jack Maddocks organised things rather well until the No11 nicked Firth to slip... where David Snellgrove spilled the catch.
Maddocks knocked off the remaining runs with relative ease. As we said earlier, this one hurt, and it pained no one more than Snellgrove, a proper cricketer who has contributed so much to the development of S&B’s young team during a tough season.
It should also be stressed at once that at no point in the game had S&B’s heads gone down. However difficult this season has been, Cunningham’s players have faced things together. And the supporters have faced them, too.
Even on the rough days those watching Cunningham’s team have never doubted the players’ effort or commitment.
As we enter the last third of the season it is probably important the team knows that.
Which is not, of course, to say that everything is always tickety-boo with the cricket. Indeed, it might be argued that had not S&B’s top order batsmen generously donated a couple of wickets to Wigan’s attack, their bowlers might have more runs with which to play. That, too, has been a theme of the season.
As it was, S&B scrapped their way to 150 all out, Dilshan making 39 and Firth batting well yet again for a 26 that included an imperious straight drive off Jordan Hampson.
S&B continued for a couple of overs after tea before Firth holed out at deep midwicket off Choudhary and the pastoral splendour of Bull Hey prepared itself for a fraught few hours.
Yet again Southport and Birkdale’s second team had a blank week when their home match against Formby was postponed following an outbreak of Covid-19 at the Cricket Path club.
However, nothing appears capable of preventing David Salt’s third team winning their title following their 138-run defeat of Spring View on Sunday.
Salt’s batsmen did their skipper proud in the first half of the game, posting 238 for seven declared in 45 overs with leading contributions from Ian Sutcliffe, who made 59, and Jack Carney, who pillaged 53 late in the innings.
Callum Scott’s 47 and
Lea c Howley b Samouelle ............... 13 Fielding run out (Richardson) ........ 18 Carney c Burrows b Hampson ....... 15 Dilshan c Howley b Hampson ....... 39 Snellgrove c Howley b Ch’dhary... 18 Sultan b Choudhary ............................. 0 Stanley b Hampson .............................. 4 Firth c Hampson b Choudhary ...... 26 Wincer lbw Choudhary ....................... 0 Gailey c Howley b Hampson ............ 0 Cunningham not out ........................... 8 Extras ........................................................... 9 TOTAL ..................................................... 150 FoW 1-19 2-40 3-52 4-89 5-89 6-110 7-113 8-114 9-125 10-150 Richardson 8-1-28-0 Samouelle 3-0-10-1 Hampson 25-4-70-4 Choudhary 20.5-8-34-4
Taylor c Sultan b Firth .......................... 9 Bradley c Carney b Dilshan ............... 5 Redmond c Wincer b Dilshan ........ 27 Hampson c Stanley b Firth ................ 4 Leyland c Snellgrove b Wincer ...... 32 Richardson b Firth ............................... 16 Howley st Carney b Wincer ............. 17 Choudhary c Sultan b Wincer ........ 22 Burrows c Wincer b Firth .................... 0 Maddocks not out ................................. 7 Samouelle not out ................................ 1 Extras ......................................................... 11 TOTAL (for nine wickets) ................ 151
Peter Crew’s 35 also ensured that S&B posted an impressive total to which the visitors responded by making 90 all out, Sutcliffe taking three for 27 and Tom Dixon two for 14.
S&B Sports Club also held its first AGM in two years last Thursday and the event was notable both for an admirably cogent and concise assessment of the Club’s financial position from the Club’s treasurer, Mark Fletcher and, even more significantly, for the election of Pauline Coventry as Southport and Birkdale’s first female President.