Egerton 'Street' ahead as Heywood lose by three

Did Heywood blow it or did left-arm paceman Adam Street earn it for Egerton?

That was the question on the lips of spectators after Heywood’s nailbiting three-run defeat at Crimble on Saturday left them anchored at the bottom of the Greater Manchester Premier League.

On the plus side for Heywood was a battling performance, despite playing without a professional, after Danny Pawson became a father earlier in the day.

The negative was narrowly failing to chase down an eminently gettable target of 136 despite seeming to be getting the better of the run chase for much of the time.

Egerton, now second in the table, were restricted to just 132 following a determined display by the Heywood attack, led by captain Chris Humphreys claiming 3-23 from a fine 10-over opening stint.

Jack Morley also chipped in with three wickets, and Simon Dawson – off target in his opening four-over spell – came back late on to claim the last two victims in successive balls.

Only professional Sandun Weerakkody (37), who went after Dawson, Marcus Pratt (32) and Dave Hamnett (27 not out) reached double figures for the visitors to give Heywood hope that they could kickstart their season.

Despite losing key opener Bobby Cross for seven and Dominic Humphreys for one in the same Will Halton over, Heywood recovered in their chase to such an extent – led by Liam Mason and Jayden Borg – that they were 63-2 with plenty of overs left to play with.

The first sign of the wheels coming off then emerged when Mason, who had played so well for his 34 and battled so hard, chose to try and loft off-spinner Tom Fairclough over the ropes but only succeeded in picking out lone fielder Weerakkody on the long-on boundary.

Mason looked distraught as he trudged back to the pavilion, and the position was exacerbated eight runs later when Wes Hunt was caught at slip.

Even then, when Andy Dawson joined Borg at the wicket, Heywood still looked favourites at 98-4 – until Street came back into the attack to produce a devastating spell. He clean bowled Dawson and came up with an encore to remove Borg, the Australian overseas amateur who had produced one of his best displays of the season with 41 before becoming the victim of a ‘Jaffa’.

At 107-6, the Heywood fans feared the worst and Street smelled blood. He trapped Sean Burrill lbw for two, Halton came back to account for Mikey Grogan, then the paceman also shattered the stumps of Chris Humphreys and Morley – the latter the last victim of the game with 11 balls still remaining.

Street deserves enormous credit for his 5-42 return, four of his victims clean bowled in an aggressive example of how to clean up the tail.

However, until the middle and late order Heywood batting line-up manages to find a way of avoiding loses wickets in clutches, relegation will continue to loom large in the first season of the new Greater Manchester set-up.

Heywood's re-arranged Premier League game at Unsworth on Sunday was washed out for a second time shortly after 3pm, with Unsworth on 120-5 with 10 overs remaining.

Egerton

T Fairclough c Burrill b C Humphreys 0
W Halton b C Humphreys 5
S Weerakkody c Borg b D Humphreys 37
K Ranasinghe c Borg b C Humphreys 0
M Pratt c A Dawson b Morley 32
D Partington lbw b Morley 3
A Street b A Dawson 6
D Hamnett not out 27
E Eatnaweera b Morley 2
J Dawson c and b S Dawson 0
S Probert c Cross b S Dawson 0
Extras 23
Total (45.4 overs) 135
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-40, 3-47, 4-50, 5-70, 6-97, 7-109, 8-123, 9-135, 10-135
Bowling: C Humphreys 10-2-23-3, S Dawson 5.4-0-30-2, D Humphreys 6-0-11-1, J Morley 13-3-36-3, A Dawson 11-3-27-1

Heywood

R Cross c Ranasinghe b Halton 7
L Mason c Weerakkody b Fairclough 34
D Humphreys st Partington b Halton 1
J Borg b Street 41
W Hunt c Halton b Pratt 3
A Dawson b Street 13
S Burrill lbw b Street 2
M Grogan c Street b Halton 3
C Humphreys b Street 6
J Morley b Street 3
S Dawson not out 8
Extras 11
Total (52.1 overs) 132
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-23, 3-63, 4-71, 5-98, 6-107, 7-108, 8-114, 9-122, 10-132
Bowling: A Street 15.1-3-42-5, W Halton 15-4-32-3, M Pratt 11-1-31-1, T Fairclough 11-1-20-1