Another busy weekend of action for Stone Cricket Club’ teams. Here’s a round-up of all the games…
Stone 1st XI secured their second win of the season with a disciplined performance against visiting Longton on Saturday
After winning the toss and electing to bowl first Stone’s new ball attack made good progress with Matt Coxon removing the first 3 Longton batsmen in his opening spell. The accurate left arm spin of Steve Morgan made run scoring difficult and with the support of Kyle Melis, Stone’s bowlers restricted Longton to a below par 161-8 at close of innings.
In contrast to their opponents, Stone batted with good intent, and with a solid foundation built by the top order batsmen, it was the experience of Phil Cheadle and the stroke play of Coxon that took the game away from the visitors in the middle overs of the innings. Despite the loss of both batters, Coxon for a superb half century, Stone had too much in the locker room for the visitors, and the champions eventually eased to a comfortable 4 wicket victory.
Stone SP 1st X1 v Rode Park & Lawton 1st XI
Olly Perry’s men travelled to Rode Park hopeful of extending their fine start to the season but were met by a home side determined to get their season up and running. Despite some initial success with openers Nick Cooper and James Sutton hitting 48 and 45 respectively, Stone collapsed to 131 all out in only 37 overs. Professional Jalat Khan and Andrew Marshall sharing 9 wickets as the Stone players found a variety of ways to get out. Disappointingly only one other players reached double figures.
In reply Rode Park made easy work of the target with Khan making an unbeaten 76 as they romped home by 8 wickets.
Stone 2nd X1 v Barlaston 2nd XI
“A bad toss to lose” meant that the visitors had first use of a damp Barlaston wicket on Saturday limping to 43-5 thanks to a fine spell of bowling by home opening bowler Matt Hodgson. At that point skipper Banks together with Matt Hubbart playing his first game of the season, launched a rescue act that saw them reach 105-6 before the latter departed for 35. Banks went on to record a fine 54 before becoming one of Hodgson’s 6 victims. A later rally from the evergreen Paul Minshall with a plucky 20 saw Stone reach what looked like a respectable 159 all out from their 50 overs.
The heavy roller and Barlaston’s openers put paid to any thoughts of victory however as Matt Cope and Tom Gray added 108 for the first wicket, Cope departing first for almost a run a ball 75. Gray remained undefeeated for a patient 35 from 130 balls as the home side reached their target with 8 overs to spare.
Stone SP 2nd XI v Oulton 2XI
Skipper Rob “Billy” Price new he was in for a good day when he won the toss for the first time this season! In a day to remember he took a great slip catch, hurled down the stumps for a run out and hit the winning runs to seal SP2’s first victory of the season.
Inserted to bat Oulton were pegged back to 89 all out in 27.2 overs by a super SP2 fielding display. Joe Beeston (22) and Alex Lloyd (39) provided the only meaningful resistance as Mickey Chandler found his form to claim 3-23, ably supported by Ben Shearing and Lee McLaughlin with 2 wickets apiece.
In reply the openers went cheaply but Shearing (24) and Gareth Jones (31) put on a 50 run partnership to steer their side close. Both went with a tricky 25 still required as Joe Beeston (2-11) found his range. The tension was cranked up as a further 2 wickets went down, before captain Price sealed Oulton’s fate and with it posted the 20 pts on the board with SP2 closing on 90-6.
Stone 1st XI v Tamworth 1st XI: National Knockout (Sunday 10th May)
Stone overcame a scare to run out relatively comfortable winners against Tamworth at Lichfield Road. Liam Hickey won the toss and took first use of a wicket that favoured the spinners. Initially Stone struggled with 3 members of the Cheadle family back in the Pavillion with the score on 29. However Dan Lunn 73 and Sam Graham, making the most of his opportunity due to the unavailability of regulars, with 71 added a match winning partnership of 155 that eventually saw Stone reach 207 at the end of their 45 overs.
In reply Tamworth started relatively brightly reaching 42 before Olly Perry another to impress having been brought into the side made the breakthrough. George Hawbrook made inroads the other end but at 80-2, the vsisitors were well ahead of the asking rate. Skipper Hickey though had other ideas and marshalling his bowlers to good effect, the introduction of spinners Morgan & a brilliant catch from John Cheadle soon slowed things down and before long they’d collapsed to 93-5. Despite that batsman jacob Flower continued to compile a hard hitting 50 and it was only when Morgan returned that the tie was eventually turned in the home sides favour. Tamworth being bowled out for 173 with Morgan finishing with 5-11
An away tie at Walsall in the regional Semi Final now awaits Stone on May 31st.
