On a cold Sunday at Abbeydale the seconds took on Wickersley in the quarter finals of the Whitworth Cup. This meant that there were fielding restrictions and each bowler could bowl a maximum of nine overs.

Riaz won the toss and decided to bowl. We opened with Pete Turnbull and Ben Fielding. Both bowled a reasonable first six to restrict Wickersley to around 40 without loss after 12. Jahangir had his first life as Ben got hands to a miscued drive off his own bowling but couldn’t hold on to it. A story to be repeated throughout the afternoon.

Billy Root replaced Pete but by this time both batsmen had settled in and were beginning to score more freely.

Zabe replaced Ben and bowled a steady spell with just one ball an over spoiling an otherwise good spell going for 31 off 6.

By then we had released the great white? (M. Simpson) who after bowling 2 half trackers for his first 2 deliveries bowled a tidy spell with better lines than the rest.

At drinks Wickersley were 117 for 0 and we were staring at a huge run chase.

Riaz then came into the attack and bowled well from both ends taking 1 for 55 off his 9 overs. Ben and Pete came back to finish off their spells by the end of which Jahangir had had 4 lives with three more catches going down, 2 off Ben and 1 off Riaz.
Ben and Pete finished with 0 for 30 and 1 for 49 respectively Pete finally getting Jahangir for 82.

Ri and the Great White bowled the death overs, Simmo bowled brilliantly finishing with 2 for 33 of his 8 overs including Wickersley’s opener Hughes who batted very well for his 75.
Wickersley finished on 233 for 4 off 45.

Tea was good with potato wedges and the pasta getting the thumbs up from everyone. Pete was muled by Billy with the old does this cream smell off to you… SPLAT trick!!! To much hilarity.

Going out to bat we thought we had a chance of attacking there total. We opened with the two sharks, Lister and Simmo. Wickersley’s opener bowled a scrappy first over going for 21. Simmo biffed another boundary then nicked one and departed for 18 of 6 balls. Danny ‘tequila’ Walton joined Lister and they batted well together taking the score to 77 before the former was caught for 20. Lister followed soon after for a good 36. From then on though it became a steady flow of wickets with Benji Watson going for 11, Pete running himself out for 23, and Riaz bowled for 9.

Simmo A. was providing the resistance we needed and he and Kuram Javed set about repairing the damage. By this time Danny was counting down balls left and runs required.
When Kuram fell for 12 we were 184 for 7 needing 50 of about 30 balls. Billy came and went for 3 and Ben joined Simmo, but then
disaster struck, Simmo caught for an excellent 58 with the score on 203. Ben was the last man out and we fell a disappointing 26 runs short.