Cricket: Cross anchors Heywood innings, McQuinn and Schofield blow away Greenmount batting

A trio of key individual performances inspired Heywood to another vital home victory in the Greater Manchester Premier League.

Bobby Cross, Tom McQuinn and substitute professional Chris Schofield led the way to a 71-run victory over Greenmount which lifts the Crimble side into a mid-table position.

Cross delivered a polished 56 and shared important stands of 77 for the second wicket with Jack Morley and 39 for the third wicket with Schofield to set up a total of 157.

Then Australian recruit McQuinn knocked over the visiting top order with a 3-25 burst in an impressive 11-over new ball spell to help reduce the visitors to 36-4.

And Schofield, standing in for the injured Travis Townsend for a second time this season, followed up with a devastating 5-16 return from almost 14 overs of controlled leg-spin to wreck the Greenmount middle and lower order batting line-up.

Cross proved the key to Heywood setting a reasonable target for the visitors after losing his opening partner Riley Paterson in the second over.

16-year-old Morley staked his claim for the nunber three spot with an assured display in his partnership with Cross, which withstood a series of vociferous shouts for lbw and catches behind the wicket. At 82-1, Heywood looked set for a score approaching 200.

The visiting attack never wilted and impressive young off-spinner Lewis Dove had Morley caught at slip for 26 attempting to drive a full delivery.

If the home supporters thought that the entrance of Schofield to join Cross in the middle would herald a run feast they were to be sadly mistaken.

The duo had to battle for every run as Dove and Adil Mustafa gave them few scoring chances, although at 121-2 and almost 13 overs left a sizeable total was still in sight.

Dove had other ideas, though; he enticed Schofield to loft a catch to deep mid-off trying to break the shackles.

Cross went five runs later, stumped for 56.

When Danny Pawson fell to visiting professional Kaustub Pawar without addition to the total the slide was on.

Only Dale Latham, 11, and Wes Hunt, 10, of the remaining batsman managed to post double figures and Heywood’s total of 157 seemed significantly short of what it promised to be.

Heywood needed to make inroads into the top order when Greenmount replied, and McQuinn came up with the goods in impressive style.

The Australian had Saad Khan caught by Pawson at slip, claimed the key wicket of visiting professional Pawar lbw then claimed captain Ryan Senior caught behind by Hunt.

With Pawson chipping in by bowling Tom Heaton it was the perfect start for Heywood.

Schofield made sure that he capitalised.

The former England and Lancashire star mesmerised the rest of the Greenmount line-up with his quality leg-spin and started his haul by trapping Ryan Barker lbw to make it 40-5.

Despite sixth-wicket stand of 25 between Owen Feakes and Dove, Schofield never relaxed his grip. He had Dove caught in the covers, Cameron Smith was bowled for a duck without addition to the total and at 65-7 there was no way back for the visitors.

Feakes was another victim caught at slip, Morley joined Schofield in the attack to have Callum Hunter slickly stumped by the impressive Hunt.

It was fittingly left to Schofield to apply the coup-de-grace by having Mustafa caught off a skier.

Heywood are now starting to get a foothold in the premier table; with Saturday’s visit to Edgworth another important clash between two sides separated by just two points.

Heywood

• R Paterson lbw b Barker 3
• R Cross st Feakes b Dove 56
• J Morley c Pawar b Dove 26
• C Schofield c Greenhalgh b Dove 17
• D Pawson c Smith b Pawar 3
• D Latham c Feakes b Pawar 11
• W Hunt c Hunter b Pawar 10
• S Burrill b Mustafa 8
• M Grogan b Mustafa 1
• T McQuinn not out 1
• T Pagett run out 0
• Extras 21
• Total (49.5 overs) 157
• Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-82, 3-121, 4-126, 5-126, 6-140, 7-155, 8-156, 9-157, 10-157
• Bowling C Smith 7-0-31-0, R Barker 8-0-28-1, A Mustafa 12.5-1-35-2, L Dove 14-4-35-3, K Pawar 8-0-23-3.

Greenmount

• S Khan c Pawson b McQuinn 2
• K Pawar lbw b McQuinn 16
• T Heaton b Pawson 3
• R Senior c Hunt b McQuinn 7
• R Barker lbw b Schofield 16
• O Feakes c Pawson b Schofield 16
• L Dove c Paterson b Schofield 10
• C Smith b Schofield 0
• S Greenhalgh not out 6
• C Hunter st Hunt b Morley 1
• A Mustafa c Cross b Schofield 6
• Extras 17
• Total (37.3 overs) 86
• Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-22, 3-30, 4-36, 5-40, 6-65, 7-65, 8-75, 9-76, 10-87
• Bowling: T McQuinn 11-3-25-3, D Pawson 5-1-19-1, C Schofield 13.3-6-16-5, J Morley 8-2-21-1