Racecoursemen make heavy Weather of it

Central Lancashire League

'IT never rains it pours' not only sums up the summer's abysmal weather, it also describes Radcliffe Cricket Club's fortunes. When they are good they are very good, when they are bad they are awful.

Who says so? Skipper Graeme Simpson, that's who.

"We were just climbing up the table nicely and we could have maybe jumped one or two places if we'd won, but instead we went backwards," was his assessment of his side's no-show over the weekend, when the Racecoursemen lost both their games.

"Sunday was a disgrace, it was pathetic, we bowled and fielded very poorly," he said.

"We got off to a reasonable start and claimed an early wicket, but we didn't capitalise on it, we allowed their pro and their number three to bat well. We got three late wickets but we didn't deserve to win."

"Saturday it was a case of 'do we start, don't we start?' The only option was to go home, so we decided to go ahead with the game and we put up a reasonable score, although it was probably always a few short.

"We then dropped their pro before he'd scored, which was a fatal error, because with Norden if you get Mujtaba out they are there for the taking.

"As it turned out we lost four wickets and they lost three, that was it, it wasn't easy to score but if we'd batted sensibly it would not have been hard to stay in.

"We didn't bowl particularly well early on and they got off to a flier, on their ground it's difficult to defend a relatively small total."

At the Racecourse on Sunday Radcliffe batted first and after an initial slow start - Farnworth went for a duck - fellow opener Phil Hayes in tandem with paid man Pasan Wanansinghe put on a respectable second wicket stand of 124.

Had Radcliffe continued in that vein they would have gone well over 200, however, it was not to be and that knock proved to be the high point of the innings, as Ashton pro Ridee began to let rip with the ball.

After claiming Farnworth (caught Thorpe) and Hayes (46, caught Selby) he continued with Wanansinghe (76, caught Calverley) and Simpson (24, lbw).

With Stock claiming Whiteley (6, lbw) and Gorsi (1), and Kelley and Nicholson run out, Radcliffe finished on 173-6 off their 50 overs, with Ridee claiming 4-69.

Anil Rideegammanagedera, to give him his full name, then top-scored with the bat, hitting 58 not out.

He was helped by team-mate Thorpe (46 ro) but more so by the Radcliffe bowlers, who gave up 54 extras to help their opponents to 174-3, with 11.5 overs to spare.

At Woodhouse Lane the previous day Radcliffe only managed 135-4 off their 37 overs, with Aussie Bruce Cruse top-scoring with 66.

He then carried on where he left off with a bowling stint that returned him figures of 3-12, but it was not enough and the league leaders reached their target in 30 overs, with pro Mujtaba topscoring with 63no.

Weather permitting this weekend promises another double-header, with Werneth the visitors to the Racecourse on Saturday, followed by a trip to near neighbours Stand on Sunday.

"We'll go out looking for two wins again and see what we can get," said Simpson.

"Werneth have been inconsistent all year and as I've said before, Stand are Stand."

But it is the weather that will dictate things, just as it has all summer, if this time of year can still be described as such.

"The weather has been horrible, it's like we've been playing on April wickets all summer," said Simpson.

"It makes the game a bit of a lottery, the wickets won't allow you to bat or bowl as you would like to.

"We've not been able to a practice for a long while, so you're going from one weekend to another without picking a bat up.

"Then when the weekend comes around you're thinking, "Are we going to play a full game? Are we mopping up before we start? Are we going to be pulling the covers on and off? Is it going to be a bog we're batting on?"

Happy days!