Prestwich 1XI bounced back from defeat in the league on Saturday to move into the second round of the Lancashire Cup after a big win at Farnworth Social Circle on Sunday.
Returning figures of 3-2 from 1.4 overs, Andy Bradley mopped up the Farnworth tail after wickets from Pro’ Nico Van Zyl (2-10), Jack Doyle (2-16), Stuart Els (2-22) and Tom Gibson (1-23) helped limit the home side to just 99 all out.
In reply, Els (52*) and Gibson (27) took a significant chunk out of the required runs as Prestwich eased past their target by 9 wickets to set up a home tie on the 9th June against Heaton in Round Two.
It was a much different story 24 hours earlier though as Prestwich made the short trip up the M61 to face Horwich for the first time.
Despite a promising start with the Bolton side struggling at 20-3, a middle order recovery helped them to post a competitive score of 192-8 from their 50 overs.
Our response got off to the worst possible start as 6 early wickets left the visitors reeling with just 18 runs on the board.
Skipper James Wharmby (17) and Nathan Bailey (28) offered some resistance but that was as good as it got as Prestwich slipped to a heavy 120 run defeat.
Professional Nico Van Zyl took 4-43 at Horwich RMI.
There’s certainly entertainment in the air as far as the Second Team are concerned this season. And no more so than Saturday’s Heys Road encounter with Flixton.
Limiting the visitors to 92 all out with three wickets each for Sam Staley (3-26) and Daniel McCall (3-29), Prestwich had every chance of continuing their winning start to 2024.
But after the loss of both openers in the first three overs, the task ahead looked a little more complicated for Dylan Kane’s team.
Jack Doyle (41*) set about recovering the Prestwich chase but as partners returned to the shed at regular intervals, with only Khalid Noori (11) hitting double figures, at 57-8 the Flixton target looked somewhat out of reach.
However, McCall’s 33 ball 14 helped nudge his side up to 90-9 with a wide and 2 byes then sealing the 5 points for Prestwich.
On Sunday there were significantly less nerves about as Prestwich 3XI cruised into the next round of the Premier Cup with a big win at Edenfield.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Adam Taylor (pictured top) starred for Nick Carter’s team, carrying the bat with 94 from 121 balls.
He was well supported by Finlay Lester (44), Sam Regan (23) and Jon O’Connor (14*) as Prestwich finished their 40 overs on 195-2.
With only two Edenfield players reaching double figures, Ariz Sajid (3-13), Carter (3-16) and Karl West (2-7) were the main wicket takers with both Lester and Stephen Ritchie collecting a scalp each too as the Rossendale side were all out for 57.
Finlay Lester scored 44 in the cup at Edenfield.
Back at Heys Road the Fourth Team had a tough game against a very strong Whalley Range 5th team.
Losing the toss Prestwich started well with Anees Arif (2-38) removing one of their openers but after that wickets proved hard to take.
With dropped catches of varying difficulty, the home team were left to rue not taking their changes and when a partnership developed, Range pressed home their advantage.
Danny McCall (1-53) took a wicket with his first ball, Anis Khan (1-43) took his first league wicket for Prestwich and Oscar Ireland (3-28) the pick of the bowlers.
In reply the Prestwich openers were on track with the required rate but after a breezy start Sid Chopra was ran out on 16.
Ali Sherazi (26) started to repair the damage however a flurry of wickets left Prestwich with a mountain to climb.
There was an entertaining cameo from top scoring Chris Heys (28) but the chase finished some distance off at 114 runs short of the target.
