Green forced to settle for draw
HAWK Green took to the road on Saturday with a visit into Derbyshire to play Dove Holes where late afternoon rain forced them to settle for a draw.
On winning the toss the Greens skipper elected to bat first on what at first sight looked an excellent wicket. However, the Greens openers Josh Hampson and Paul Needham struggled early on against Doves opening attack of Jack Gregory and Sean Critchlow with both bowlers managing to extract extra bounce from a track that was a fair cricket pitch to both bowlers and batsmen.
Needham was first to fall adjudged LBW off the bowling of Cartledge for 12, 14-1. Next to the crease was skipper Josh Unsworth and he was soon into his stride showing the form he has been in all season. However, with the score on 32 he became the victim of a yes/no interlude and was unfortunately run out for 15.
New batsman Ben Littler has also been in good form this season and with Hampson started to take the attack to the Dove bowlers. With some excellent shots all around the ground they took the score to 160 when Littler got a leading edge and was caught and bowled by Dave Cartledge for an excellent 63.
Jack Needham was next in and he also started very brightly and with Hampson took the score to 196 when Hampson was caught by Mark Vernon off the bowling of Cory Flint for a fine 78, 196-4.
Jordan Henderson came in at No 6 and in typical fashion smashed a huge six over backward square but two balls later was caught off the bowling of Flint for 8, 211-5.
Peter Richards, nursing an injury, came in at 7 and watched the dismissal of Jack Needham for 24 off the bowling of Critchlow, 216-6, and Sam Clarke, 218-7, before he succumbed to the bowling of Critchlow, 226-8.
This brought together Lee Hallas and Logan Jeffs and with six overs remaining the target was to use all the overs and hopefully take the total to around 250.
But the pair had a different agenda and in the overs remaining they added 64 runs with a mixture of both sensible and brutal shot selection with Critchlow and Flint the unfortunate recipients. When Hallas, 35, eventually fell to the last ball of the allotted overs the Greens total was 290-9, leaving Jeffs not out on 32. Critchlow was Doves most successful bowler closing on 5-89.
In response, Doves openers Dan Jones and Mark Vernon also struggled early on against the Greens opening attack of Lee Hallas and Jordan Henderson with Vernon falling for 3, caught Unsworth off Henderson, 6-1.
For the first time this season, rain interrupted play and it was a further hour before play could be resumed resulting in the loss of eight overs.
Following the restart, Henderson immediately accounted for new batsman Shaun Cartledge bowled for just 1, 16-2. Man in form Jack Gregory was next to the crease and in partnership with Vernon added 104 runs before he became the first of two caught and bowled victims for Unsworth for 40, 123-3.
He was followed by Adam Critchlow for 10, 134 -4. Dove were to lose no further wickets and at the end of the overs reached 150-4 with Mark Vernon closing on a very fine 78 not out.
For the Green, Henderson had nine overs 2-8 and Unsworth 2-28.
The Greens 2nd Xl had a fine win against the same opposition winning by 48 runs with some excellent contributions from the younger players, after an opening partnership of 60 from Justin Blackhurst and Chris Moores the Green slipped to 90-6 but with excellent batting from Nathan Nield 16 and Luke Hall 32 the innings closed on 161. Dove were the bowled out for 119 with Harry Fenteman being the pick of the bowlers well supported by George Ridings.
Last Thursday the Green entertained Compstall in the first round of the Offside Trust T20 competition and restricted the visitors to 138 and then comfortably passed this target for the loss of only three wickets and five overs in hand. Next week the Green entertain Broadbottom wickets pitched 1pm.