Rochdale end Norden's Tom Hardman T20 hopes

Norden’s hopes of retaining the Tom Hardman T20 trophy were blasted apart by neighbours Rochdale in the first of Sunday’s semi-finals at Stag Park.

The start was decent enough for the Stags as Simon Harman and Daniel Salpietro put on 22, but the latter was then bowled by Michael Harling.

The truth is that Norden looked way out of sorts and they never recovered from the loss of their professional, batsmen playing some poor shots, albeit against some good bowling.

Harling effectively wrecked the innings. He trapped Ash Gowers leg before and bowled both Rehan Udwadia and Dan Buckley.

Harman went on to 42, but he then heard the sound of timber as Will Avery hit the sticks with his fourth delivery of the match.

Martin Smith boosted the total with 21 before being bowled by Lansdale, and Greg Tattersall managed a late 11, but Stags’ total of 97 was never going to be enough.

This was blatantly obvious as Dom Ayres and Wes Lansdale set the reply off with a stand of 60 before Ayres went leg before to Salpietro for 29.

Lansdale was out the same way 13 runs later, and Rochdale then made heavy weather of knocking off the remaining runs required without ever looking in real danger.

Tom Avery was stumped by Gowers, off Malik, Kabir Ahmed was leg before to Malik, and Marradon Bend was bowled by Simon North.

The target was reached first delivery of the second last over when Jack Avery took a single off Salpietro to make it an unbeaten 15.

Norden
S Harman b W Avery 42
D Salpietro b Harling 10
A Gowers lbw Harling 1
R Udwadia b Harling 0
D Buckley b Harling 1
S North c Harling b Highton 5
S Pimm lbw Lansdale 1
M Smith b Lansdale 21
H Malik c Lansdale b Highton 0
G Tattersall b W Avery 11
C Hartley not out 3
Extras 2
Total 97
Bowling: T Avery 3-0-19-0; M Harling 4-1-18-4; Faulkner 4-0-14-0; Lansdale 4-0-15-2; Highton 4-0-14-2; Avery 2.3-0-17-2.

Rochdale
D Ayres lbw Salpietro 29
W Lansdale lbw Salpietro 29
M Bend b North 17
T Avery st Gowers b Malik 3
K Ahmed lbw Malik 0
J Avery not out 15
M Harling not out 0
Extras 5
Total (for 5 wkts) 98
Bowling: Smith 4-0-21-0; Hartley 4-0-21-0; Salpietro 3.1-0-28-2; Malik 4-2-13-2; North 2-0-8-1; Udwadia 1-0-6-0

The second semi-final saw Heywood beat Walsden, but only just.

Dale Latham was unbeaten on 47 as Heywood posted a challenging target with their 140 for seven.

Walsden’s reply started slowly but then picked up, and with the overs running down they looked on for a win.

But their big hitters were skittled in an amazing late collapse, and even a four off the last ball of 20 overs left them two short of a final place.

Umpires on the day were Ian Marland, Ian Herbert, Tony Bartley and Martyn Armitage.