Both our Saturday teams sit poised in second place in their respective divisions looking for firm promotion pushes as we enter the second half of the 2024 season.
On Saturday Prestwich completed the first round of the weekend’s DSL double header with a couple of 7 wicket wins.
Scott Kirwin and Adam Hawley held the DSL innings together in the First Team’s encounter at Heys Road before being all out for 162 in the 44th over. Nathan Bailey with four wickets backed up by Nico Van Zyl (3-41) and Ryan Maddock (3-71).
A solid start from openers Stuart Els and Tom Gibson was finally broken when Els (32) was caught behind in the 18th over with Prestwich one run into their sixties.
Sam Kershaw (25) was next to partner Gibson until he was given caught behind leaving skipper James Wharmby (26*) the task of accompanying the 121 ball bat carrying Gibson across the finish line.
Over in Tameside Adam Cheshire spearheaded the attack for Prestwich 2XI as they restricted DSL 2s to 118 all out.
Not only did he trap the dangerous opener Akram one run shy of his half century, he then accounted for almost the entire Lawrence’s middle order and tail, finishing with a superb 6 wickets for just 10 runs.
Recovering from the early loss of Thomas Orrell, the 2s had their own bat carrying hero with Sam Baldwin’s 75 ball 56 providing the backbone of the Prestwich reply.
Jack Doyle (18) and Alex Bradley (17) helped edge the visitors towards their target before Dan Ahern hit the winning runs in the 24th over.
Tom Gibson in action during the First Team’s win against DSL.
24 hours later, the heavy rain put paid to the First Team’s trip to DSL without a single ball being bowled.
Leaders Brooksbottom took full advantage in Premier 2 with another comfortable win over Royton which leaves Prestwich still in second place, 10 points off first and 10 points off third placed Moorside with a game in hand on both.
Back at Heys Road Prestwich 2XI enjoyed a narrow win over Lawrence’s leaving them well poised in second place, 3 points behind leaders Ashton.
However, with only Alex Bradley’s 16 and an invaluable 36 from Andy Beet being the only two digit scores, the 109 all out total didn’t give the bowlers much to work with.
But stand-in skipper Wilf Reeve rose to the challenge taking 6 wickets for 42 runs from his 15 overs bowled. Supported at the other end by Finlay Lester (2-11) and Sam Staley (2-22), the visitors were eventually bowled out for 96, just 13 runs short of their target.
Wilf Reeve celebrates the first of his 6 wickets.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Prestwich 5th Team took a long distance road trip to picturesque Audlem to play a 40 over friendly.
Fielding first the opposition got off to a quick start with 50 for one of their openers. This was followed by another 50 in their middle order as Audlem reached 182. Oscar Ireland with 3-18 and Gary Hershcovitch with 2-4 were the pick of the bowlers backed up by two catches for Ariz Sajid and a stunning catch on the run by Anwar Khan.
Chasing 183 to win Prestwich got off to a steady start with Anis Khaliq (19) supporting fellow opener Sid Chopra (50 retired not out) in setting a solid foundation.
Brothers Ariz Sajid (50 retired not out) and Haider Sajid (17) with a partnership that including some quick single running that put the opposition on the back foot got Prestwich in sight of the target.
Gary Hershcovitch reprised his role of finisher for the second game running with a run a ball 20 to complete the victory.
Going a little further back to last week, there were mixed fortunes for our T20 sides.
On Thursday the top two met at The Heys with Dylan Kane’s Patriots coming out on top against Brox Bounty Hunters by 13 runs.
Despite a positive start by Kane (16) and Thomas Orrell (21), Prestwich found themselves in a spot of bother at 54-5 in the 9th over. But runs from Matthew Cuthbert (30), Andy Beet (21*) and an unbeaten 48 from Adam Cheshire (pictured, top) gave the home side a healthy total of 162-6 from their 20 overs.
Sam Staley’s first over wicket of Qureshi got the Patriots off to a great start but scores in the 40s for Bhondekar and Smethurst turned the game towards the Bury side.
Finlay Lester finally trapped the former before a well held caught and bowled from Jack Doyle accounted for the latter. Lester and Staley extinguished the Brox middle order threat before quick wickets from Doyle secured the 3 points.
On Friday it was unfortunately the end of the road for Prestwich Heat as they suffered a 27 run loss at Shaw Spartans in their Quarter Final.
