Littleborough
Address
Hare Hill, Calderbrook Road, Littleborough. OL15 9LD.
Directions
The Club is situated not far from the fire station off Whitelees Road (Grid F3 of Manchester A-Z Edition 8 page 9).
Car Parking
Car Park adjacent to ground.
Map
Link to Littleborough Google Map
Friday April 16th 2010
Bamford-Fieldhouse 88-9 - Littleborough 89-4 (Away)
Bamford-Fieldhouse travelled to Harehill to play a friendly 20 over match against Littleborough Under 13s. Weather conditions were perfect for cricket being mild and sunny. Bamford-Fieldhouse won the toss and elected to bat, opening the innings were Joe Smith-Butler and Callum Belfield.
On a soft, early season wicket the Littleborough opening bowlers of Miskella and Fletcher bowled a good length and line giving no cheap runs away.
The first wicket fell in the 3rd over. Somewhat controversially, Miskella bowled a high full toss to Belfield who did not play the ball which just hit the very top of the wickets. The square leg umpire adjudged the ball to be fair and Belfield had to leave the field of play having made only a single.
This brought Alex Willis to the crease who quickly fell just 2 balls later walking across his stumps and was bowled behind his legs giving Miskella his 2nd wicket in 3 balls. Things went from bad to worse when Bamford's no.3 Charlie Lloyd-Jones was run out for only 1, with the score being 16 for 3.
Danny Matthews injected some purpose into the Bamford innings putting on a quick fire stand of 20 with Smith-Butler. He was extremely unlucky to be run out when his partner hit a powerful straight drive which faintly glanced the bowlers fingers before hitting the wicket with Matthews stranded a couple of yards down the track. The score was 36 for 4.
Ben Garside came in at no.6 for Bamford and played steadily, supporting Smith-Butler well, helping him complete a run a ball 32 not out, retiring with the score on 58 for 4. Unfortunately the Bamford tail did not wag and the 9 men of Bamford were bowled out for 62.
The Littleborough team manager sportingly invited Bamford to let 2 players bat again and Belfield and Willis having managed just 1 run between them 1st time round, showed their potential and put on an unbeaten partnership of 26, leaving Bamford on 88 for 9 after their 20 overs.
All the Littleborough bowlers bowled accurately with the pick being Miskella 2-9 off 3 overs and Bentley 1-0 off 2 overs.
It was imperative that the Bamford opening bowlers kept things tight to put some pressure on the Littleborough batting. Things looked good for the visitors when Smith-Butler clean bowled Wright for a duck with the score on 1 in the first over.
Belfield bowled Melia for 2 but Littleborough's no.3 and 4, Miskella and Bentley, batted well and took advantage of some wayward bowling from Smith-Butler and Belfield who both bowled with some pace but lacked accuracy.
Miskella batted extremely well and retired on 31 not out. Bentley batted patiently and was still at the crease on 15 not out when Littleborough hit the winning runs with 5 overs to spare for the loss of only 4 wickets.
The pick of the Bamford bowlers was Willis who found an extraordinary amount of swing and finished with figures of 4 overs 1-10, this having given away 5 wides with his first ball.
Garside did well in his first game behind the stumps conceding only 5 byes but too many wides and no balls did not help Bamford's cause, giving away 27 extras, nearly double the amount Littleborough conceded.
Hopefully Bamford can take the positives from this game into their first league match on Sunday (April 25th) at home against Uppermill. They need to defend their wickets better, try to build a score and then bowl with a bit more accuracy.
Link to Littleborough Cricket Club.