Church v Lowerhouse

Lowerhouse’s winning run came to a halt on Sunday as Church narrowly completed the double over them after an enthralling game of cricket.

Due to substantial rain in the previous 24 hours the start was delayed until nearly 3pm. The visitors lost the toss and, unsurprisingly, were put into bat first. A frantic 1st over saw 2 wides, 4 runs to Jon Finch and the batsman being dismissed lbw. Ben Heap and Matt Walker (elevated to number 3 due to it being a reduced overs match) accelerated the run rate to nearly 7 an over for the next 8 overs before Heap departed on 24. Walker carried on until he was bowled on 29 by Church’s professional Usman Tariq. Cobus Pienaar and Chris Bleazard kept the momentum going with some more quick scoring (particularly Blez) to take the score beyond 100 in the 19th over and managed another 50 partnership before Pienaar was run out on 30. Bleazard was in fine form once more with some mighty hits over the boundary but, just like last week against Todmorden, narrowly missed out on a half century when Bentley (on for his 2nd spell) got him out on 47.  Joe Hawke (23) posted another impressive cameo and Paddy Martin, together with Jack Edgar, helped push the final total to a highly competitive 193/8 after 31 overs.

Church got to a decent start with Wolfenden and Tariq doing their best to keep up with the required rate but there would be no century for Wolfenden on this occasion as he gave Edgar a simple catch off the bowling of Fergus Bailey for just 12. Lloyd Aspin lasted just 1 ball as Bailey trapped him with a plumb lbw. There was another rain delay shortly after this, however, which meant Church’s target had been reduced to 171 off 26 overs. Tariq didn’t last much longer after the restart as Pienaar got his man for just 25. Bailey got amongst the wickets again as Paddy Martin caught out Sam Holt (8) at mid wicket. Shortly afterwards though, the game went in Church’s favour for the first time as Craig Fergusson took Paddy for 22 off one over including two big leg side sixes into the stand. He and Harvey Aspin started to control proceedings until Finch stopped Aspin in his tracks on 46. Sam Tucker (5) wasn’t able to make a decent contribution as he knicked one behind to Joe Martin off the bowling of Pienaar, back for a 2nd spell. The South African then made it advantage Lowerhouse again with 3 dismissals in an over, including the vital one of Fergusson (44) leaving Church on 158/9 with 2 overs remaining. They still needed to score 8 off the final over, to be bowled by Pienaar. In an unexpected twist, though, number 11 Joel Gaskill hit Pienaar’s perfect full length delivery for an almighty 6 and then managed to scramble a single the following ball to give the home victory and inflict heartbreak on the visitors. Another fantastic contest between two closely matched sides.

MOM was Chris Bleazard for his 47. Double header this weekend as we play our re-arranged game at Colne on Saturday then travel to Turf Moor on Sunday to take on inter-town rivals Burnley.

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