SCCL Premier Division Round Up Week 9
By Jamie Dowley
We start todays report from Wellington where we send our thoughts and best wishes to Simon Parker and his family. The experienced Calverhall batsman was leading his side to victory at Wellington 4ths when he collapsed at the crease with a cardiac arrest. Thanks to the incredible actions of a number of Wellington personnel who deployed CPR and a Defibrillator, before Paramedics took over, Simon regained consciousness before departing in the Air Ambulance for North Staffs hospital where he remains in a stable condition. Naturally the game was abandoned.
Umpires in the match between Wellington and Whitchurch on the main square , Andy Johnson and Preston Fletcher, sensibly suspended play for well over an hour but the game then proceeded to perhaps an inevitable conclusion, a 9th straight Wellington win. Batting first captain Dan Vaughan returned to form with 74, while Matt Simmonds chipped in with 52, and Dan Lloyd on his penultimate appearance of the season added 37. Kash Hussain stuck at the task for the away side taking 4-64 while Alex Heath impressed in his 2nd spell taking 3-46, as the home innings slightly petered out from 209-4 to 248ao. It still proved to be more than enough for the victory as Whitchurch were dismissed for 155, Adan Hussain scoring 44, and Maz Hasnain showing glimpses of his best with 36. That man Lloyd again turned in an outstanding 5-29 from 15 superb overs of left arm spin, showing that Wellington will really miss his quality when he departs for Australia. But with 9 wins out of 9 are they already home and dry in the league title chase?
One man who may believe otherwise is St Georges club captain Faisal Khan with his side now on a run of 3 straight wins as they were comfortable victors at The Burway against 2nd placed Ludlow. The Dragons were out of the traps early with the bat and with Harjivan Dhinsay making 76, Ibrahim Java 52, Sunny Singh with 43 and a 12 ball (!) 37 from Zab Safi they reached 268ao a score that at one stage threatened to be even bigger. That it wasn’t was mainly down to Jason Oakes taking 5-56 while Joe Williams (pictured) took 4-78. There was also a tidy debut for Ludlow for Syed Tanzeel Ur Rehman Nazqi, a player who will be familiar to many in the lower divisions where he has been incredible for Church Stretton in recent seasons. Back to the game and it was over to Sunny Singh, as expected he will be a huge player in the red ball format and his 4-16 from 15 overs with 7 maidens was the matchwinning performance as Ludlow were bowled out for 127. Mo Khattak (2-22) and Faisal Khan (2-17) also performed admirably and the club captain Faisal is optimistic for the rest of the season.
“Overall I’m very happy we are gaining momentum. I asked for a good run of wins and the boys have delivered, if we can win our next two I am confident we will be back in the mix”
Shropshire all-rounder David Laird inspired his Newtown side to a 3rd straight win also as they crushed visitors Quatt, whose batting struggles continue to persist, so much so that they are now in 9th place and will be starting to look over their shoulder, something no one would have predicted pre-season. The damage was done early doors with Laird and fellow new ball bowler Tom Anderson reducing Quatt to 21-5, a position they never recovered from as they were shot out for 61. Laird with 4-16, Anderson 2-26 and Nathan Smith also taking a couple of wickets, meant that Newtown could relax in the run chase and despite losing 3 wickets , Laird and Marco Malan saw them home comfortably.
David Laird, “the lads are buzzing to have won 3 games on the trot, that’s not an easy task in this division but it shows we are a very competitive outfit and augurs well for the rest of the season”
Shelton were indebted to the Griffiths brothers, Ross and Sam who starred in a 34 run win at Madeley , a result that leaves the hosts stuck in the relegation places. With Shelton missing captain Simon Jones, Ben Matthews stepped into the role and he was indebted to Overseas Pro Yuvraj Sharma who made a solid 72 while Saleh Ahmed and Will Savage chipped in with 23 apiece as the visitors totalled 189ao in 43 overs. At 151-4 Shelton promised a lot more but once Nadeem Ahmad dismissed Sharma, he quickly rattled through the lower order for an impressive 5 wicket haul, finishing with 5-26. Salim Ahmed for Madeley has a fine reputation for crease occupation and the Madeley opener was once again to the fore as he looked to bat deep into the innings. Unfortunately for the home side, no other batsman could stay with him and once Ross Griffiths had superbly caught and bowled overseas pro Mithun, the canny offspinner ripped through the lower order finish with 5-56. It was left to brother Sam to wrap up proceedings taking the big wicket of Ahmed for 72, as he finished with 3-32.
Wem will be rueing 7 lost points as they failed to take the last Allscott wicket in a game that earlier in the day had seen the visitors to Soulton Rd gain the upper hand. At 33-4 Wem were in big trouble thanks to a good new ball spell of 3-38 from Callum Starling but Wem bounced back and with Matt Cohen continuing his consistent run with 37 along with fine contributions from Tyler Ibbotson (45) and captain Jim Astley (32) at number 10 who added 46 for the final wicket with youngster Ralph Davies, it all meant a competitive total of 209. For Allscott , allrounder Jason Summers put in his usual excellent spell with the ball taking 4-19. Summers was to the fore again with the bat and while Alex Ollerenshaw (4-23) was wreaking havoc at the top of the innings, he calmly went about his business batting the entire 50 overs. Even so at 80-9 with 12 overs remaining, Wem would have been massive favourites to get the win but youngster Connor Starling played a superb supporting role and saw off 30 balls while Summers ended on 67no for a credible losing draw. Both teams remain in the top half.
Bridgnorth gained their first positive result of the season as they gained a convincing winning draw at home to Sentinel. The previously unheralded Chris Green starred with the bat making 93 while 63 from overseas Jed Schwarzbach, and 40 from Ian Gregory lifted their side to a season best 301-8 off 50 overs. The Engines bowling toiled rather, with Aaryan Dixit doing his best to stem the tide with 3-74 while there were a couple of wickets for Jacob Binnersley. The subsequent run chase never really threatened either but Tom Griffiths justified his captain's faith in him delivering a seasons best 76, while the captain himself Ed Ashlin chipped in with 38 as they closed out on 214-9, the last pair seeing out the final 2 overs. Schwarzbach completed a good all round match with 4-51 and an 18-6 points split is the result.
A pleased captain Mark McPherson-Lees “We are very happy to have a positive result, it was good to combine both areas of the game and put in an overall good performance with bat and ball and its something we can build on for the rest of the season”
Next week sees Dan Lloyd make his farewell appearance for Wellington at Sentinel, while it’s a big South Shropshire derby at under pressure Quatt where they entertain improving Bridgnorth.
