As has become customary with me updating the site Northern lost heavily immediately afterwards.
Playing against League new boys Star CC in the cup was always likely to prove a difficult fixture especially with Brain, Hood, Horlock and Dan Jones all missing however Northern welcomed back last years best bowler, Gareth Jones.
A strange set of opening overs when balls were either dots or boundaries meant that it was tricky to judge just how well we were doing. Jimmy and Brett combined to effect a run out and Dave Manley again shied at the stumps for another unorthodox stumping. The main problem was the opposition were prepared to slog everything and balls kept landing in the gaps or going for 4 and those deliveries that were missed also sailed past the stumps.
A key moment in the Star innings was when their highest score mistimed a shot that sailed straight towards Martin Britton on the boundary who put the ball down and also allowed it to cross the boundary. The very next ball the same batsman put the ball high in the air only to see Gaz spill the caught and bowled chance. Several overs later Martin was to put down another very similar chance and Baz missed a diving catch which bounced under him and away for another 4 runs. The bowling wasn’t bad but although Ashley took 2 wickets he and Russell couldn’t stem the flow of runs and a final over of 25 as Russell was shown no mercy led Star to a massive total of 193. This beat the previous high score against Northern set by Cardiff Asians 7 years ago but unlike then no-one bowled badly, it was just a case of some bludgeoning batting on a small pitch.
Going into bat Northern had no batting points to play for so set about trying to attack and Russell raced along to 24 while the total was helped by 15 wides in the second over alone. Jimmy managed 17 and Baz got a quickfire 14 before Brendan top scored with an excellent 25. Only Gareth (2) and Ashley (1) failed with the bat as the 18 overs yielded 123 runs (Martin 5NO, Dan P 5 NO).
On a bigger pitch and with a couple of catches held Northern could have restricted Star to around 100 and then may well have progressed.
Bally R/O (Vaile/Clarke) 5
Ahmed Caught Chedzoy 29
Habib Bowled Jones 4
M. Ali St (Manley) Jones 12
Naveed Bowled Chedzoy 41
Imran Not Out 39
Aamir Not Out 36
Tahir
Asim
Extras 27
Total 193-5
O M R W
B Clarke 3 0 16 0
G Jones 5 0 39 2
D Perkins 3 0 32 0
R Palmer 4 0 63 0
A Chedzoy 3 0 42 2
J Vaile Bowled Aamir 17
R Palmer Caught Aamir 24
G Jones Caught Habib 2
B Willacott Bowled Habib 14
B Black Bowled Asif 25
A Chedzoy Bowled Habib 1
M Britton Not Out 5
D Perkins Not Out 1
D Manley
N Thomas
B Clarke
Extras 34
Total 123-6
O M R W
Naveed 4 0 26 0
Asghar 2 0 31 0
Aamir 3 0 12 2
Habib 5 0 31 3
Imran 3 0 12 0
Asim 1 0 6 1
bat bowl catch runout stumping play TOTAL B Black 40 5 10 55 J Vaile 22 5 5 10 42 G Jones 2 20 10 32 R Palmer 29 -10 10 29 A Chedzoy 1 15 10 26 B Willacott 14 10 24 D Manley 10 10 20 B Clarke 0 5 10 15 M Britton 5 10 15 N Thomas 10 10 D Perkins 1 -10 10 1 Man of Match - B Black
