Weekend Review – It was a shocker!

In the long history of Lowerhouse CC I think it would be fair to say that we’ve had some bad weeks and some truly dreadful weekends.

In a recent period of relative success it is perhaps easy to forget some of the darker days and make light of past upsets and struggles.  That said I think the last week could easily be described as dreadful!

It all started with the loss of one of our own on Monday.  There has been plenty on this site about Phil Astin and his worth to our club but I doubt we can ever do him justice.  The true loss will become apparent over a period of time.  The week ended with a triple defeat that saw us make a bad start in the T20 competition, bow out of the Worsley Cup and relinquish top spot in the league…..It’s certainly one to forget!

Starting with the T20 defeat against Nelson it was great to see some of Phil’s team mates from the 80’s out in force to pay their respects and to see the ground and bar very busy throughout the evening.  The cricket didn’t go to plan as we suffered an heavy defeat following a poor all round display.  The only notable contributions being an unbeaten 19 from Paddy Martin and an unbeaten 18 from Jonny Whitehead.  Luke Woodcock scored an unbeaten 68 for Nelson.

On Saturday we had a chance to exact immediate revenge but we came up just short in a game that was much tighter than the final scorecard might suggest.  After a slow start assisted by numerous Nelson extras we slumped from 39-2 to 43-5.  A great innings of 44 from Charlie and 50 from Fergus assisted with quick bursts of 10 from Joe Beneduce and 16 from Matt Walker saw us post a reasonable looking 169-8.  Nelson made a good start to their reply reaching 53 without losing a wicket.  However, they slumped to 54-3 following a 3 wicket burst from the pro and it looked like game on.  Unfortunately Luke Woodcock was to again prove our nemesis with an unbeaten 68 that saw Nelson home with 9 balls and 4 wickets to spare. Another wicket here of there and I’m sure Nelson would have struggled to reach the target. The pro recorded figures of 4-21 from his 10 overs.

On Sunday it was back to league action with a rain affected game at Rawtenstall.  Batting first Rawtenstall had recorded 114-7 from 39 overs when the rains came.  Finch was the pick of the bowlers with 4-36 from 12 overs.  The rain abated and the revised target was a gettable looking 95 from 30 overs.  It wasn’t to be and we slumped from 15-4 to 54 for 7 and 76 all out.  The only notable contribution with the bat being from Paddy Martin who was unbeaten on 19.

So that’s that, a shocking week and weekend that we’ll all want to forget in a hurry.  Anyway, lets hope for a better week this week.  On Friday we entertain Colne in the T20 at Lowerhouse with live music from Steeros after the game. On Sunday we host Enfield as we look to get our form back on track.