Cricket: Walker to the rescue

It had looked as if the Prestwich wheels were wobbling when they lost three wickets for 23 runs, off 19 of their allotted 50 overs.

But Ian Walker and skipper Steve Orrell laid claims to be the fourth emergency service when they came to the rescue.

Orrell found an initial mechanical problem, playing and missing to Batty's first four deliveries before he finally got his engine running.

He then started to run all over the West attack, with a mix of sharp singles and calculated clouts to the boundary.

Meanwhile, Walker had been ticking over quietly before stepping up in gear to show the form which earned him more than 1,100 runs last season.

Both batsmen started to disrupt the rhythm of Sri Lankan bowler and former Test player Bandaratilleke, who had the Prestwich top order in plenty of trouble early on.

After Steven Lorenzini had scored 17 out of 19 before he was stumped, Walker and Orrell undertook a major repair job, towing the side along to 132 before Orrell's mistimed cross-shot was snapped up by Bandaratilleke for 54. He had reached his half century in 64 balls.

Walker was now in the fast lane, hitting a glorious straight six onto the banking, and reverse sweeping Bandaratilleke for four.

He was caught by wicketkeeper Williams for 70 in a late flurry for runs, which was boosted by a quick 19 from Mike Hudson to set the reigning champions no easy target of 184.

Andy Bradley was instrumental in putting the West openers in a straitjacket as his first seven overs yielded just six runs.

Chris Humphreys was less economical but struck the first major blow when he bowled Gareth Senior for six, the skipper having scored a century the previous day.

An athletic leap from Duxbury at mid-on caught out O'Brien, putting West at 26-2, but a 52-run partnership between Zaman and Bandaratilleke threatened to shake the game from Prestwich's grasp.

But Alex Blake bowled a beauty to rock back the pro's middle stump, and Prestwich gradually began to work its way through West's vaunted line-up.

Duxbury and Lorenzini both chipped in with a wicket each, whilst Humphreys - who finished with 4 for 46 - dismissed the injury-hit Williams, who had plundered a century on each of his last two visits to The Heys.

Bradley certainly had his eye firmly on the stumps, as a brilliant direct throw from mid-wicket almost ran out Zaman, and Bradley repeated the dose soon afterwards, this time getting the finger of approval from the umpire to run out Mike Batty.

Indeed, it was a frenetic finish for Bradley who had Zaffer Zaman caught by Lorenzini and then clattered the off stump of Imi Zaman to wrap up victory and herald his landmark 500th wicket for the first team.

The victory somewhat swamped the feeling of disappointment from Saturday's clash with Woodhouses, which saw Prestwich fail to overhaul a target of 173 in a game reduced to 42 overs because of the effect of overnight rain.

Some tight early overs, and Bradley's wicket of Cassidy for 12, saw Woodhouses make slow progress at barely two runs an over up to the halfway point.

But Scott Webb opened up to rack up 54, while Alan Starmer (27) and Chris Atherton (31) made fluent middle-order contributions to set up a challenging total.

Prestwich were further hindered by an injury to youngster Chris Thomas, who took an excellent catch at deep mid-wicket only to find out later he had broken his thumb in the process.

In reply, Prestwich made a healthy start, running at four-an-over and Duxbury in free-scoring mode. Together with Lorenzini, 59 was put on for the first wicket, but by then the scoring rate had started to slow, and when Duxbury was caught at mid-on for 54, Prestwich needed an injection of pace.

Chris Atherton's nagging medium pace was making this difficult and the run rate spiralled. David Fitzmaurice made 23, but others departed for single figure scores in search of quick runs.

Despite a six from Matty Walsh off Atherton, who returned 4-34 off 17 overs, Prestwich decided to settle for one point, which at least restricted Woodhouses' haul to three.

At the end of the weekend's fixtures, Prestwich lie in third place in the Lancashire County League, just two points adrift of the leaders Woodhouses.

Tomorrow the first team is away to Longsight.

The 2nd XI mainitained their unbeaten record with two maximum five point victories, making it 20 out of 20.

A seven-wicket blitz from John Walters helped to dismiss Woodhouses 2nd XI, who won the title last year, for a lowly score,and Gareth Barnes and Jon O'Connor each got into the 30s to achieve a comfortable victory.

The following day, an unbeaten 69 from Andy Taylor led the way in a triumph over Denton West.