Lowerhouse v Burnley

Lowerhouse sauntered to their third success over Burnley in 22 days with a crushing win on Sunday afternoon.

The hosts won the toss and, unsurprisingly, decided to bat first on a gloriously sunny day. What was surprising, though, that Fergus Bailey emerged from the dressing room to open with Jonny Whitehead. Unfortunately, the experiment didn’t have the desired effect as he nicked it to Jonny Clare at first slip in the 3rd ball of the first over without scoring. Whitehead and Ben Heap got over the early loss by scoring at more than 4 an over, Whitehead in particularly negotiating Cole Hayman very well with some great drives. He then hit the biggest six of the season off Graham Lalor which landed halfway to the Lane’s End pub. He tried the same the very next ball but the ball clattered into his stumps and he was gone for 27. Cobus Pienaar looked to continue his impressive form but seemed to struggle against Liaqat and the pace man got him LBW for 17. Last week’s star man Matt Walker also couldn’t chalk up another big score when he fell to Hayman for just 2 (the youngster struggled once more as he conceded 5 runs an over). Heap, meanwhile, was still going along nicely at the other end and racked up a well deserved half century.  He didn’t go much further though as Bharat Tripathi clipped off his off stump to end his excellent knock on 53. Declan Bailey came in and produced another handy innings with 28 off 31 balls. Joe Hawke, who got to an unusually slow start, soon got into top gear with a boundary laden 36 and Chris Bleazard gave another late cameo with 29 not out as Lowerhouse posted what seemed liked a very defendable total of 216/8 off their 50 overs.

Burnley’s chances of winnings seemed to be over in the opening 10 overs as the home side made a rip roaring start. Pienaar got the ball rolling by forcing a drag on from Chris Burton (3) in the 4th over. Joe Hawke then demolished Dan Pickup’s stumps in his next over. He then took the wicket of Josh Whitehead, who walked before the umpire raised his finger after edging it to Heap to first slip. Jonny Clare (given special dispensation by Derbyshire to take part in the fixture) had already survived one very strong appeal for a caught behind was gone for 5 as Joe Martin claimed his first victim of the day. Professional Chris Holt managed a couple of boundaries but his day was over on 13 as Pienaar took his 3rd wicket to finish his superb 5 over spell with 3/14. Captain Tripathi was the latest failure as he fell to Hawke for just 2. Hawke then ended any chance of the visitors reaching their target as last recognised batsmen Stephen Brunt went for 6 (Hawke’s final figures were 4/23 off 9 overs). After just 15 overs, Burnley were 37/7 so their aim was to attempt to survive the remaining overs and deny awarding the bowling points to the hosts. Michael Kelly (17) stuck around for a while but frustration got the better as he slashed wildly at a Paddy Martin delivery and Joe Martin made the call to move from his position and take the catch, his 5th of the innings and therefore concluding his first 5 victim haul in the 1st team. Hayman and Liaqat were doing a good job of holding up the inevitable with some stubborn resistance but Liaqat (15) finally fell to Paddy Martin as Jonny Whitehead took a comfortable catch at cover. Heap rounded off proceedings to getting Hayman (24) for the 2nd meeting in a row as he edged it straight to Whitehead at slip to hand Lowerhouse victory by a devastating 110 runs. Burnley were 106 all out off just 35 overs.

MOM was Ben Heap for his 53 and 1/13. Another bumper weekend awaits as Todmorden make the trip across the Pennines for Twenty20 action then it’s games against the two other Rossendale Valley sides: Haslingden at Bentgate on Saturday and Bacup at Liverpool Road on Sunday (which is also Legends Day).

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