The Official North Staffs & South Cheshire Cricket League Weblog

A glorious day of sunshine ensured that the last day of the cricket season wasn’t marred by rain and gave all teams at the top and bottom of their leagues a sporting chance of realising their dreams.

After 22 games the pavilions of North Staffordshire and South Cheshire would have been the scenes of many a drunken celebration or evening of what-ifs, contemplation and perhaps a few tears, as clubs from all over the region contemplated what awaits them in 2010.

Premier A
Pete Wilshaw’s Longton are the new Premier league champions and at the same time relegated Leek for the first time in their prestigious history to Division One. Jamie Cullerton’s side desperate season continued at the home of the new champions and culminated in them finishing bottom of the pile.

Roger Sillence has had a superb season as Longton’s professional and he came up trumps once again yesterday when his team needed him most. Longton batted first and smashed 252-6 in 53 overs, giving them plenty of time and overs to bowl out leek. Despite stubborn resistance from Tim Tweats and Alex Mellor, Sillence’s four wickets proved invaluable support to Dave Edward’s 5-59.

Longton finish 19 points ahead of Little Stoke who have had a tremendous season but failed to win at neighbours Stone. Shaun Jenkinson and Qaiser Abbas both smacked tons for the home side and set Little Stoke 253 to win, but Gareth Morris’ men fell behind the run rate, despite half centuries from John Hancock and Richard Harvey, and had to settle for a winning draw on 222-5.

Leycett hammered an Audley team with their minds possibly on today’s Staffordshire Cup Final, but it was in vain as Moddershall were in the process of giving a similar hammering to a Knpersley side who have faltered after the halfway stage on the season. Veteran Richard White rolled back the years by taking 7-23 as Audley were skittled for 115, and Kiwi professional Craig Spearman smashed the visiting attack to all parts as his unbeaten 79 saw Leycett home in just 17 overs.

But Moddershall’s stand-in pro Imran Arif was in sensational form at Knpersley, as his 9-39 hustled the home side out for just 85. Chris Beech, who has done than most to ensure safety for Modd, saw his team home with a defiant 35 not out.
Leycett finish second bottom, just five points behind Scott Oliver’s side, and make an instant return to division one.

In the other games, there were wins for Porthill and Wood Lane.

Champions: Longton
Relegated: Leycett; Leek
 

Division 1A
Barlaston were in 70’s fancy dress mode after their game at home to Whitmore and the party spirit seemed to affect them on the pitch as Neil Davies’ side were beaten easily by a Whitmore team chasing second spot. But it was to no avail as Elworth were beating Kidsgrove and sending Gary Stanyer’ side down to Division two, along with already-relegated Crewe.

Irfan Fazil was once again in superb form for Whitmore, as he followed up his six wickets with an unbeaten half-century, as probably the best two professionals in Division One went head-to-head at Barlaston. Their own pro, Niroshan Bandaratilleke smashed 42, but had to take a back seat for once as Fazil’s superb all-round performance won his team the 20 points but Kidsgrove’s batting once again let them down in South Cheshire.

Elworth declared on 186-9 after 55 overs, giving the visitors more than a sporting chance of winning, but Steve Morgan’s outstanding figures of 5-5 were more than enough to clinch a 72 run victory and second place (by 15 points) in the table. Earlier Pete Barnett and Matt Buckley had made solid contributions with the bat for the home side, with Najaf Shah and Elliott Maginniss both taking three wickets for Kidsgrove.

Meir Heath started the day staring down the barrel of relegation but had an easy six wicket win at home to Cheadle with Richard Brough and Nick locker both having good all-round matches. Richard Stonier’s side finished 19 points in front of Kidsgrove.

Elsewhere, there were wins for Rode Park, who might be a decent outside bet for promotion next season, and Blythe, whilst Sandyford and Crewe drew.

Champions: Barlaston
Promoted: Elworth
Relegated: Kidsgrove; Crewe
 

Division 2A

Oulton took the championship after they defeated Checkley at home whilst rivals Betley were  held to a draw at Alsager. Betley went into the final day as leaders, but came unstuck at Alsager after being dismissed for 176. Paul Tibbetts did the damage for the home side with 5-31, whilst Jamie Jervis’ excellent form continued with 61.But solid knocks from Simon Dyer and Mushy Arshad overcame a nagging spell from Adrian Butler (4-31). Requiring 3 from the last over, Alsager only managed 2 runs thereby finishing on the same score of 176, and therefore drawing the match. Alsager just about took the extra 2 points for the winning draw. This left Betley’s title hopes resting on Oulton slipping up at home to a Checkley side which might have had it’s thoughts on today’s Talbot Cup Final.

Betley had already done enough to secure promotion, but Oulton easily beat Checkley to lift the league crown. The visitors could only must 163-9 wth Nick Hunt and Alvin Beardmore being the main contributors to the Checkley total. Professional Pradeep Jayaprakashdaran took 4-47 and Andy Dawson 3-39 as the visitors declared. Myles Coughlan, Michael Perry and Danny Kyle all then got amongst the runs to secure a five wicket success and the championship flag to be flown over the Spencer Copeland Ground.

Bignall End had an almost impossible task to stay up, and their fate was sealed as they were beaten in a low-scoring game at promotion-chasing Weston. Chris Barrett took five Bignall End wickets as the visitors were shot-out for 130, but Kieran Peake’s 4-36 made the home side sweat for their victory. Joe Gates’ 35 saw Weston scamper to a three wicket victory.

Newcastle always looked safe and gained the necessary points for survival despite losing at home to Ashcombe Park. Andy Elliott, Andy Keates and Arris Ziad all contributed to Newcastle’s 203 all out, but Craig Walley and Steve Profitt were in good nick for an Ashcombe side who completed a two wicket victory.

In the league’s other games, Silverdale beat Caverswall, whilst Stone/SP drew with Meakins.

Champions: Oulton
Promoted: Betley
Relegated: Bignall End; Stone/SP
 

Division 3A
The top three all won and took the full 25 points from their fixtures, so it was as you were last week at the top of Division 3A. This means that Moddershall A are the champions and Wedgwood Stanfields runner-up, with Bagnall 10 points behind in third and probably thinking back to their two run defeat against Wedgwood/Stanfields last week.

Modd A were dismissed for 155 at home to Meir Heath/Fenton with E Plant being the pick of the visiting attack with 3-15. But despite 30 from Craig Hodson, Upsal Indrasiri and N Ali were amongst the wickets agin for modd as they wrapped up the title with a 58 run win.

They finished just 3 points ahead of Wegwood/Stanfields who won by 32 runs at home to Porthill A.
Meanwhile, Bagnall were hammering Hem Heath/Forsbrook by 168 runs, but it was to no avail as they finished in third place despite their blistering start to the table.

At the other end of the league, Norton-in-Hales were relegated after they drew at Eccleshall in a high-scoring game, whilst local rivals Woore were getting out of relegation jail by beating Hanford.

Roger Davies’ 77 was the backbone of Hanford’s 168, but A Burton, A Saunders and W Abbas all made telling contributions to the Woore cause and they scraped home by three wickets to finish just 5 points ahead of Norton-in-Hales. The Tractor boys have now gone from Premier league champions to being relegated from Division Three in a relatively short space of time.

Eccleshall’s huge total of 284-6 was beyond the Tractor boys, and they had to settle for a draw on 207-8.

In the league’s remaining game, Oakamoor completed Endon’s poor season with a comfortable 92 run defeat, leaving the post lane outfit third bottom.

Champions: Moddershall A
Promoted: Wedgwood/Stanfields
Relegated: Norton-in-Hales

Anthony Bunn 13th September 2009

The Final of the Talbot Cup sponsored by the Hanley Economic Building Society will take place next Sunday 13th September 2009 at Checkley Cricket Club commencing at 1.00 p.m.

The finalists are Checkley & Stone SP

Click on the Logo above for more info.

Premier Division Review 5th September 2009

With just one game left of a topsy-turvy season there are still issues at the top and bottom of the table to resolve.

Little Stoke’s 20 points from their win in their game against Wood Lane is the Sentinel’s Match of the Day, left the door slightly ajar for Longton if they were to win batting first at Audley. This they did, by just 9 runs, to claim top spot by two points from Gareth Morris’ team.

Mike Longmore made a steady 33 for longton but they lost wickets at regular intervals in the face of a superb spell by Audley’s Andy Johnson (4-66 from 28 overs). At 104-7 the Longton innings was in danger of stagnating at best, but a rapid 44 from seasoned all-rounder Andy Kenvyn ensured that Pete Wilshaw’s team at least had someothing to defend as they closed on 161-9.

Professional Roger Sillence then continued his superb form for Longton with a devastating and match-winning spell of 7-31. Stefan Rduch put up soliod resistance with 36 against his previous team, but at 86-8 the game looked all over. But Johnson completed a fine allr-round performance as he and Dave Freeman put on 65 for the ninth wicket to put Audley within sight of victory.

But Sillence took two late wickets which could prove crucial this time next week. Longton now host relegation-favourites Leek whilst Little Stoke face a tricky derby game at local rivals and fast-improving Stone, next Saturday in what should be a fascinating end to the season.

Stone have had a great second half to the season and can still mathematically win the league after they won at Hem Heath, with the home team scrambling just enough points that should see them staying up this season.

Stone had Qaiser Abbas to thank for their 31 run victory as he struck an unbeaten 81 and took four key wickets in a fine all-round performance. He was given good back up from Luke Cheadle’s half-century with the bat and Russ Ballard’s five wickets with the ball. Hem Heath’s John Cheadle struck a fine 52 but it was in vain as Stone triumphed.

It’s tight at the bottom of the league with just 6 points separating the bottom three clubs.

As stated before, Leek face a mammoth task at Longton next weekend and they weren’t helped by losing a low-scoring game at home to Porthill. Richard Cooper and the in-form Colin Dearden both took four wickets for the Moorlands side as only Porthill’s Josh Butler put up any resistance in his side’s total of 120.

But Butler followed this up with three wickets and Mark Bengry took 4-24 as Leek struggled for runs and were eventually dismissed for just 100.

Leek are bottom but just a solitary point behind Leycett who had much the better of their crunch relegation game at Moddershall. Derbyshire’s Dan Redfearn returned to smash an unbeaten 115 for Leycett as they declared on 221-3, but the visitors might rue not declaring sooner as their hosts were way off the pace and settled for a draw on 153-8, with Chris Beech (66) once more in the runs for Modd. Leycett’s Rob Heath and Richard White both took three wickets and Ian Boulton’s men are just five points behind their opponents.

Next week, Moddershall face a trip to Knypersley and Leycett host Audley.

One-time championship favourites Knypersley have stuttered since half-way and they lost a low-scoring game at Burslem. Tim Goodwin’s determined 37 ensured that Knypersley reached 128, with Kevin Cockerton (5-36) and Ant Sheeran (3-34) doing the damage with the ball for Burslem.

The home side struggled in the face of an excellent spell from Darren Butler (6-44) but Josh Tittensor dug-in for an invaluable unbeaten 37 from 140 balls to see his side to a two wicket victory that keeps them in mid-table.

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