Stone’s title defence off to a stuttering start

Stone Cricket Club’s title defence got off to a faltering start on the opening weekend with a disappointing away defeat at Whitmore.

After winning the toss the champions got off to a flying start and reduced the opposition to just 6 for 3, with Matt Coxon blowing away the top order. However, dogged resistance from Whitmore’s overseas player, Murtaza and new skipper Justin Mould, led to a recovery and a respectable total of 211 for 8 at close of innings.

Stone’s run chase never materialised as Whitmore’s new ball attack blitzed the Stone top order, reducing them to 30 – 5 at one stage.  A middle order fightback led by Coxon (72*) and Phil Cheadle (46) was ultimately in vein as the Whitmore attack maintained their discipline, eventually dismissing the champions for 184 with just over three overs remaining. Lee Johnson was the pick of the Whitmore attack as he started the season in fine style picking up five wickets.

Stone SP 1sts, however, had a very impressive start to the season with a six wicket victory against new promoted and a strengthened Norton in Hales. The visitors reached a lofty 211-8 off their allotted 55 overs thanks largely to opener Simon Belfield’s 79, at one stage they were 133-1 until the introduction of left arm spinner Wasim Khan. Khan whittled away at the middle order to finish with figures of 5-48 off 15 overs, skipper Olly Perry also chipping in with a couple of wickets.
In response SP were stuttering at 73-3 against the opening attack of Iqbal and Morgan, before opener James Sutton and veteran wicket-keeper joined together to compile a partnership of 106 for the 4th wicket. Sutton fell for 79, but Aston remained undefeated on 76 as the home side got home with almost 5 overs to spare.

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Stone 2nds opened their campaign against last year’s champions Whitmore and after being inserted made 173 off 46.1 overs. Returning to the fold after a long injury lay off, Ben King made 61 to top score. Nathan Porter was the pick of the visitors attack with 5-61. In reply Stone made steady inroads into the visitors batting to reduce them to 102-6 all the bowlers picking up a share of the spoils. Skipper Ian Banks was the pick with 4-61, but a 50 stand between Hadley and Platt together with some missed opportunities and dropped catches by the Stone fielders dragged the visitors back into the game before a couple of wickets the last pair requiring 4 off the last over which they managed with a scrambled two off the last ball. An entertaining fixture which went to the wire but ultimately missed chances cost Stone the 20 points.

SP 2nd XI made the trip to Shropshire to take on divisional new boys Norton in Hales on 18th April. The youth policy was once more to the fore with no less than 6 juniors making up the 11 on the day. Inserted in to bat slow progress was made before 13 year old debutant Drew Chandler (28) came in to up the pace. Together with the doughty Mark Townsend (32) they accelerated the SP score. Paul Gould came in to put the brakes on with his spell yielding 4-36 and ripping the guts out of the middle order in the process. Mickey Chandler (34no) and Ben Shearing’s (18no) partnership got SP 2nd to a respectable 148-9 off their allotted 50 overs.

In reply Norton in Hales were always behind the rate, but contributions from Mike Bircher (24), Martin Rowley (25) and John Day (24) were bettered by Eddie Warrington, who added to his 2-26 with a match winning 40 not out. Max Cuthbert and Chris Lindop, with 2 wickets apiece were the pick of the SP2 bowlers but the home side used the time available to get the job done in 54.2 overs ending on 149-7 and claiming the 20 points.