Cricket: Heywood's McQuinn wrecks Roe Green top order

Tom McQuinn revealed what he is really made of to set up what was ultimately a comfortable Heywood Cricket Club victory over Roe Green in the Manchester Premier League.

The 28-year-old pace bowler from Melbourne has proved a popular addition to Heywood since joining the club at the start of the season.

He showed everyone his true colours with a superb 5-20 return from 11 overs to wreck the top half of the Roe Green innings and leave them tottering on 40-6.

It was credit to Roe Green that captain Justin Kenyon, who made a noteworthy 91, and Guy Emmett put together an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 129 to set Heywood a target of 170 that hardly looked likely almost a couple of hours earlier.

Heywood carved out the victory chase with six wickets and two overs to spare thanks to half-centuries from Andy Kerr and Travis Townsend.

This will be remembered as the day that McQuinn unveiled his true quality with a sustained spell of threatening new ball bowling.

Danny Pawson started the Roe Green rot by having Jordan Stephens caught behind before McQuinn took centre stage. And how!

Dan Jones was his first victim, caught by Sean Burrill from a sliced drive to point, then he grabbed the big wicket of professional Dan Cooper bowled without playing a shot.

McQuinn’s tail was really up now and he had Luke Williams lbw in the same over, followed up by clean bowling Joe Gatenby-Brown. And he completed his quickfire five-wicket haul by having Luke Norris caught by Pawson in the slips.

At 40-6, Heywood might have been forgiven for thinking that they could complete an early afternoon victory. But that was without reckoning for Kenyon and Emmett.

The duo played sensibly and carefully at first as they gradually put together a partnership and wore down the Heywood pace attack, bringing left-arm spinner Chris Kaye and later Riley Paterson bowling his off-spin on to the scene.

There was no further joy for the bowlers as the seventh-wicket stand eventually moved into three figures. Kenyon was the aggressor, with his 91 coming off 116 balls before the overs ran out when in sight of a deserved century, and Emmett gave him sensible support with 30 off 100 balls.

What looked at one time to be a stroll in the park for the Heywood batting line-up ended up to be a significant challenge of 170 for victory.

Kerr and Paterson got the chase off to a secure start until Paterson skewed a drive to backward point, and 34-1 became 62-2 when Bobby Cross was caught behind off left-arm spinner Andy Hough.

That, however, brought professional Townsend to the wicket and he produced arguably his most assured innings of the season to anchor his side to victory.

He shared a 55-run stand with Kerr before the latter was caught behind for another assured contribution of 53, then a 30-run partnership with Pawson who – with victory in sight – drove a low catch to extra cover.

That was the last of the alarms and Dale Latham joined Townsend in a stand of 24 to guide the side home with 12 balls to spare to the delight off another good crowd basking in glorious weather.

Latham’s cameo yielded 15 from 18 balls and Townsend finished on 55 from 97 balls, the latter carrying out his role perfectly as Heywood completed their second Premier League victory of the season.

Roe Green

• D Cooper b McQuinn 17
• J Stephens c Hunt b Pawson 0
• D Jones c Burrill b McQuinn 15
• J Gatenby-Brown b McQuinn 5
• L Williams lbw b McQuinn 0
• L Norris c Pawson b McQuinn 0
• J Kenyon not out 91
• G Emmett not out 30
• Extras 11
• Total (for 6 wkts, 50 overs) 169
• Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-29, 3-32, 4-34, 5-39, 6-40
• Bowling: T McQuinn 11-6-20-5, D Pawson 11-4-41-1, A Dawson 8-1-32-0, C Kaye 11-4-28-0, R Paterson 4-1-19-0, T Townsend 5-0-24-0

Heywood

• R Paterson c Millward b G Williams 8
• A Kerr c Gatenby-Brown b G Williams 53
• R Cross c Gatenby-Brown b Hough 17
• T Townsend not out 55
• D Pawson c Hough b L Williams 12
• D Latham not out 15
• Extras 11
• Total (for 4 wkts, 48 overs) 171
• Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-62, 3-117, 4-147
• Bowling: G Emmett 13-2-28-0, L Williams 7-0-40-1, G Williams 12-3-39-2, A Hough 15-0-49-1, D Jones 1-0-10-0