Too little too late!
The 2nds were hoping to continue their promotion push and unbeaten streak at home to Alvanley on Saturday. The ground was extremely wet and heavy cloud overhead. Skipper Kendrick won the toss and elected to bat.
In-form Jamie Peel (26) and back from travelling Johnny Barltop (24) opened the batting. Both started to build their innings until Barltop clipped one off his legs to the square leg fielder. The following batsmen never really found their feet and only Hoyle, Kendrick and Coldwell managing to make double figures. This brought Josh Longmore to the crease wielding a weapon known to the Lindow faithful as “THE BAT”. In his first game of the season he took an aggressive approach despatching the Alvanley bowlers of the boundary rope on a number of occasions, eventually running himself out for 42. This left Alvanley with a total of 163 to chase.
Ahmed and McClymont opened the bowling with both of them picking up early wickets leaving the visitors 24 for 2 off 10. Then came the fight back with the number 3 and 4 batsmen both picking up half centuries. When Kendrick finally broke the partnership Alvanley were 152 for 3 with 12 overs remaining. Coldwell (4 for 40 off 11) and Jamie Peel (2 for 4 off 4.3) then changed the game dramatically in a 5 over spell of tight, accurate bowling. Coldwell bowled superbly and was unlucky not to pick up his 5th when the tail ender skied a ball straight over his head. When the 9th wicket fell Lindow could sense victory, however the experienced Pearson came to the crease and with 3 balls remaining picked off the 2 runs to seal victory for the visitors.
This was a disappointing defeat and there was specific room for improvement from a number of the bowlers and also in the field. With the visit to Cheadle this coming weekend, Lindow need to get back to winning ways to continue the promotion push.
