Prestwich 2XI commenced their 2024 league and cup campaigns over the weekend and got off to a perfect start.
On Saturday Whalley Range 2XI were the visitors to Heys Road for the opening round of games in GMCL Division 3.
After being put in to bat by Prestwich Skipper Dylan Kane, Range’s opener Faizan Ahmed (52) and Janaid Maqsood’s (32) 63 run partnership for the third wicket was about as good as it got for the visitors.
When the latter was trapped LBW by Adam Cheshire, shortly followed by Jack Doyle’s catch of Ahmed, the steady flow of wickets then limited the visitors to 152 all out. Sam Staley and Cheshire both doing equal damage taking 4 wickets for 40 runs each.
Thomas Orrell set about the Prestwich reply in typical fashion with 3 sixes and 5 fours in his 57 before Kane (31) and Hassnain Ashfaq’s (31*) 56 run partnership pushed the home side towards their target. A target that was soon surpassed with a brace of four’s from Ashfaq.
On Sunday, Ashfaq (pictured above) was in full flow with the bat again, this time for the visit of Glodwick in the 2XI Premier Cup. Scoring 86 from 70 balls, which included 6 fours and 6 sixes, along with Charlie Jackson’s 39, helped push the Seconds up to 198-9 from their 40 overs.
Despite a steady start by the visiting opening pair, Glodwick’s reply never really got going. A regular fall of wickets followed with Daniel McCall’s 5-13 and Andy Beet’s 4-13 helping send the Heys Road team through to the next round.
Daniel McCall celebrating his fifth wicket in the Glodwick Cup win.
It was a very different weekend for James Wharmby’s First Team, one that saw the weather take centre stage yet again.
On Saturday the overnight rain proved too much for the pitch at Brooksbottom and with heavy cloud cover and no wind throughout the day, there was no chance of the badly affected areas drying out before the cut off time. The match was abandoned and our GMCL Premier 2 campaign got underway with 2 points.
Then, on Bank Holiday Monday, Prestwich were back in ECB National Club Championship action with a trip to Flowery Field. Despite getting to 130-4 from 28.4 overs (Lewis Smith top scoring with 35), the torrential rains came down and ultimately put paid to the tie as a regular contest.
The subsequent bowl-out saw Prestwich progress by 3 hits to 1 to set up an away tie at St Annes in the First Round this coming Sunday.
Thankfully the conditions over in Hyde stayed well clear of north Manchester as our Fifth and Sixth teams played out a couple of 20 over games against a touring side from Birkenhead based Irby CC.
The first game was a victory for the tourists who bowled superbly in an opening spell that only conceded one run the first four overs. Prestwich recovered to score 79 with Ariz Sajid (19), Anees Arif (21) and Leo Michaelovitz (14*) being the batters hitting double figures. Irby made light work of the chase cruising past the total with four overs to spare and using the remaining time to hit 102.
Prestwich had seven bowlers taking a single wicket each including a first club wicket for Ronan Moorhouse and one for Christian Millington, a returning cricket junior who swapped his familiar tennis whites for their cricketing counterparts!
Christian Millington sans tennis racquet.
Game two saw Prestwich take revenge with a completely different side, with the tourists making a number of changes of their own. Tom Hatchett took two wickets in his second over with a third wicket falling to Sahil Khan that left Irby at 23-3. However a couple of key partnerships took them up to 117-6 after their 20 overs. Tom Hatchett with 2-11 and Gary Hershcovitch’s 2-12 led the bowling along with wickets for father and son duo Anwar and Sahil Khan.
Mike and Tom Orrell opened the Prestwich batting for the first time together but with Mike departing early Tom hit 23 at over two a ball before being bowled. Ellis Compton with 45 not out and George Neill 48 not out as they both comfortably dealt with the tourists attack to complete the chase with three overs to spare.
Before the Bank Holiday fun at Heys Road, the Fifth’s travelled up to Todmorden on the Saturday for a friendly game.
Put into bat with overcast conditions the Prestwich innings got up to 146-6, underpinned by the top 5 batters all reaching double figures. Sid Chopra (41) and Nathan Goodman (38*) the stand out performers.
The home side began their chase and after a rain break their youthful team fell just short by 3 runs in the final over of a very even contest. Rob Thompson and Oscar Ireland returning identical figures of 2 for 16 each as both held their nerve at the end of the innings. Sami Khan, Anis Khaliq, and Emal Mayakhail all chipped in with a wicket each to complete a win for the 5s in their first outing of the season.
