Prestwich 1XI returned to winning ways in the league, recorded a second T20 success and progressed in the National Knock Out without bowling a ball.
First up was Friday evening’s T20 and Woodbank Wildboyz were left to rue a first ball drop of Stuart Els who then went on to an unbeaten 62 as Prestwich Heat chased down the Bury side with 6 overs to spare.
Nico Van Zyl (3-16) and Tom Gibson (3-20) were the pick of the bowlers but it was in the field that Heat did the most damage.
Nathan Bailey took a great catch in the deep to dismiss Wildboyz Pro’ Mohsin while Dylan Kane completed a hattrick of catches to send three of the opening five bats back up the steps.
And with James Wharmby, Tom Gibson and Charlie Jackson all holding on to chances too, Woodbank finished their 20 overs on 109-9.
Once that opening ball scare was out of the way, and despite losing Sam Kershaw in the third over, Prestwich then set about the task in hand with relatively little drama. Skipper Wharmby (41*) and Els eased Heat over the finishing line to make it two wins from two and send Prestwich top of Premier Pool 2.
Safe hands from Dylan Kane as he held on to three catches against Woodbank Wildboyz.
Back in league action on Saturday and the Firsts put last week’s loss up at Horwich behind them and moved back up to fourth place in Premier 2 following a 111 run win over Heyside.
Stuart Els (pictured top) continued his form from the previous night’s T20 with another top score of 44 as Prestwich made a steady start to their innings with Tom Gibson (15) and Lewis Smith (25) supporting well.
Sam Kershaw (42) then took up the mantle as Prestwich pushed up to 201-5 with useful late runs from Nico Van Zyl (22*) and Nathan Bailey (17*).
In reply Heyside were rocked in the third over when West Indian Test cricketer Jermaine Blackwood was bowled by Bailey with just 5 runs on the board. That sparked a top order collapse with the visitors left stunned at 6 for 5!
A brief recovery took the Oldham side into the 30s before a couple more Bailey wickets left them 7 down in just the 12th over.
A 44 run partnership added some respectability to the score before Heyside finished all out for 90 from 24 overs.
• The scheduled ECB National Club Championship tie with Netherfield was conceded by the visitors due to other fixture commitments. We will now have a home tie in Round 3 against Ormskirk on Sunday 16th June.
Nathan Bailey’s 6-47 helped Prestwich 1XI to a big win over Heyside.
Prestwich 2XI suffered their first loss of the season as they went down by 7 wickets at Roe Green.
Floundering at 38-5, a much needed partnership between skipper Dylan Kane (25) and Tarun Kumar (19) edged their team into the 80s but any thoughts of another dramatic win were soon quashed as the home side reached their target in the 18th over.
Moving on to Sunday and returning super figures of 5-15 from 7 overs, before smashing two huge sixes to settle Prestwich nerves, Thomas Orrell was the stand out performer as the Thirds dodged the rains to record a 4 wicket win at Denton West.
With sporadic showers and a wet pitch, a 28 over game finally got underway at 3pm with Nick Carter winning the toss and electing to field.
Openers Jackson and O’Brien looked comfortable for the home side as they eased into the 30s but that all changed in the 8th over when Finlay Lester (2-15) took two wickets in successive balls, Tom Ward catching Jackson with Beeby clean bowled the very next ball.
O’Brien was soon stumped by Leo Michaelovitz before Karl West (3-19) and Thomas Orrell set about removing the next five batsmen for just 25 runs, including some good catches from Ward again, Michaelovitz, Lester and Carter.
It was left to Orrell to mop up the tail with a caught and bowled and then another stumping to bring up his five-fer, West ending on 76 all out.
Despite the early loss of Lester, Adam Taylor (13) and Sam Regan (18) got the Prestwich reply past halfway before Orrell (21) took the visitors to the brink as the rain started to come down.
All that remained was for Nathan Flegg (12*) to crash a boundary back down the ground to seal all five points, lifting Prestwich to second in the Sunday Premier Division.
Thomas Orrell slamming a 4 after earlier collecting 5 wickets for just 15 runs.
Back at Heys Road the 4XI’s game against Droylsden was abandoned at tea after Prestwich posted 176 all out which included a 50 for skipper Matt Eaves.
