Roberts seals the deal for league

Photo: Picture by PAUL STERRITT.

WHAT A FEELING: Saddleworth’s players celebrate alongside joint team manager Peter Gill (left) and scorer Paul Seddon.

CRICKET: 

TENSE, thrilling, terrific — the final was all of those as the Saddleworth and District Cricket League won the Readers Lancashire Inter-League Trophy at Well-i-Hole yesterday.

The Lancashire County League needed six runs when bowler Dave Roberts, playing on his home ground, charged towards Cameron Ball. The visitors were nine wickets down but in Ball — the teenager from Glossop who is on Derbyshire’s books — they had a bright young talent. He had defied everything the Saddleworth League had thrown at him on his way to a precious 51.

Roberts dropped slightly short of a length, the 16 year old went for the pull shot — glory he thought beckoned with a six over square leg — but the delivery snuck through, knocking back his middle stump.

Triumph for the Saddleworth League, heartbreak for their opponents.

Down on one knee, man of the match Ball looked to the heavens, while the delighted bowler joined his team-mates for a gathering of ecstatic bodies.

The Saddleworth League team deserved great credit for this five-run success. At four for two, they were staring down the barrel of a gun. Even at 224 all out, they were probably 30 runs off where they wanted to be.

Greenfield’s Alex Peters with 55, and skipper Peter Skuse (31) of Stayley, repaired some of the damage with a third-wicket stand of 79. Peters was brilliantly run out by Justin Kenyon.

Saddleworth’s Roberts (19) and Daelon Campbell (17), of Uppermill, also added useful runs, but it was the knock of CJ Ferreira that gave the Saddleworth League impetus.

Austerlands’ overseas amateur struck 57 from only 37 balls, including six fours and three sixes. He was good to watch.

Ryan Stanbury holds the Lancashire County League record for the fastest 50 — made 24 hours earlier — and century, and one could see why after the Prestwich man crashed Whalley Range’s Waqas Malik for a six and a four in his opening over.

But three wickets in four balls from the superb Mohammed Shakir — the Saddleworth seamer finished with three for 34 from his nine overs — reduced the visitors to 24 for three.

That soon became 70 for five and 97 for seven. Ferreira got the vital wicket of Stanbury for 46.

Then followed a brilliant stand of 96 between Scott Kirwin (Denton West) and Ball.

Kirwin (84) was exceptional, but he too fell to Ferreira, with the assistance of wicketkeeper Chris Gill’s gloves.

The final, which seemed to be slipping away from the hosts, was back in the melting pot. And when Will Hargreaves was trapped for nought by Skuse with his side requiring 27 runs, the Saddleworth League appeared to be home and dry.

Ball, joined by Woodhouses’ Josh Butler, took it to the wire.



WHALLEY Range won their first Moore Cup — the Saddleworth and District Cricket League’s second XI knock-out competition — with a five-wicket defeat of Glodwick (123 for nine) at Warren Lane.

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