The England Tour kicked off in earnest in the southern Lancashire village and rugby league stronghold of West Leigh. West Leigh CC was a fixture that was well remembered from the 2005 tour, with many repeat tourists licking their lips at the prospect of returning to the scene of a loss firm in belief of avenging that defeat on their picturesque ground.
CPCC Tour Captain Dean Storey won the toss and elected to bat in the hope of utilizing the short square boundary to one side. Adrian ‘Mugsy’ Molloy and Nathan Storey opened the batting and things started off in a great manner for CPCC with the openers seeing off some good bowling to put on 82 inside 14 overs. One thing evident early on was how well West Leigh bowled with the short square boundary, giving nothing to the leg making scoring not that easy but Storz was intent on pushing things along and cracked some great boundaries. Nath was on 49 before he was bowled by a prodigious 15 year old talent, who has been earmarked to much bigger and better things in his county. This was reaffirmed soon after when he let loose with a Shane-Warne-to-Gatting ball, pitching half a foot outside leg before ripping back to take Mugsys middle and leg for 32. 2-98 the foundation was there. Rob Minnett was joined by Brendo Ball and they established a very sensible partnership to see us to a healthy 174 before Rob – who had ripped some glorious pull shots for 6 – departed for 63. This started a bit of a slide as we lost 2 wickets more for the addition of only 5 more runs as Dyso and Toby Horstead ended up back in the pavilion to join the effervescent local legend from last time, Wardy.
The locals were vocal and the pints flowing as the sun shone and it was definitely game on. 5-179 and we were looking at around 200 which we surpassed by strong strokeplay and running by Brendo and solid nudging by Steely before the big man fell on 202 bowled for 11. Deano was run out with a few balls to go as we got to 214 for 7 with Bruno not out for a nice 38 setting West Leigh a decent target. Pick of the bowlers for West Leigh was eventual man of the match J Wilkinson – no not the rugby fly-half who sunk Wallaby dreams in 2003 but another 15 year old version who is destined to bigger things with his ripping leg-spin.
CPCC got stuck into the first of many fabulous teas on this tour, and hit the field full of determination to get the England leg off to a flying start. The new pill was thrown to Deefa Davis and ‘Yeah Man’ Rohanek who got the initial breakthrough on 6 with a nice catch to Dyso. West Leigh upped the ante until 46 when Brendo got the breakthrough and 10 runs later the sharp CPCC fielding paid off with an excellent run out to have locals in some trouble at 3-56. At this point CPCC held the momentum but the clouds had rolled in and a sharp shower fell giving West Leigh some respite. We removed a dangerman upon resumption with Deano taking a nice catch off Deefa to reduce them to 4-60 but then a 72 run partnership in fast time started to take the game away from CPCC. Dyso took a great catch to remove their WK for 38 and 22 runs later Deefa took a ripper off Yeah Man to make it 6-154 with 11 to go. CPCC still felt we were in the game but the Entwhistle brothers got together and teed off, taking the game away to keep the honours firmly with West Leigh who coasted home in the end with 4 wickets and 4 overs to spare. It was a shame as the jet lag really seemed to kick in, inside the last hour of play but the players trudged off the field heads held high after a great effort in a match played in the highest spirits both on and off the pitch.
There was a great crowd there who were very vocal and a lot of fun, and CPCC tried to regain some pride with the Boat Race challenge but unfortunately CPCC went down in extremely controversial circumstances due to at least a half glass break by the pommies. This caused some conjecture but in the end the beers flowed and we all had a great laugh, Cammo was re-united with his long lost brother Wardy and CPCC enjoyed the West Leigh hospitality well past dark. Rob Minnett won the Man of the Match for CPCC for his sterling 63.
West Leigh 5-216 (M. Rohanek 2-41, A. Davies 1-19, B. Ball 1-42, T. Horstead 1-34) DEFEATED CPCC 7-214 (R. Minnett 63, N. Storey 49, B. Ball 38 n.o., A. Molloy 32)
Roe Green Retain the Glen Powers Trophy
July 7: CPCC will have to tour again in 2013 as it has failed again to win the coveted Glen Powers Trophy against Roe Green. The home side's 250 off 40 overs proved too much for CPCC as they stumbled to all out 122 off 36 overs. Best performers for the Tourists were Rob Minnett and Toby Horstead, both with 42 runs, Dean Storey 2/63 and Brenden Ball 2/45 with the ball, and the Boat Race team which notched up another victory and remain undefeated against Roe Green.
Whilst news and results have been slow to filter back home (apart from a detailed shopping report from Vicki Carden), it is understood that Steve Carden currently holds the Golden Duck Medal after being the third victim of a hattrick at Earby! More details from the first week of the Tour in Manchester as they come to hand. The Tourists have now headed for York where they are scheduled to play Bradfield.
Monsoon At Marple
CPCC's 3rd fixture was unfortunately and comprehensively washed out despite the gallant efforts of the Marple groundsmen. Threatened with rain in 05, the fixture was lost as the CPCC team bus pulled into the driveway. Read the following report from Marple.
Hello again from Marple England. Unfortunately our match against our friends from CPCC did not go to plan, being a victim of some very unseasonal weather. We experienced heavy rain in Marple the night before the fixture and when I arrived at our ground at 9.00 in the morning (fresh from dodging another heavy downpour), I was not too confident that we would be able to get some cricket (see photo's). Thanks to some stirling work from some of our lads who were roused from their beds, by about 1 o'clock we had got the ground into reasonable shape (see photo's) and we were looking forward to some kind of a game. Little did we know that the CPCC bus was about to arrive dragging a large thunder cloud behind it! As the CPCC chariot plunged up the drive to MCC, the rains hit again and we were back to square one - puddles on the pitch part 2. But undaunted the squeegies were broken out once again and with a dozen CPCC players armed with brushes and forks, we all set about the pitch again. Even the traction engine made an appearance to roll the wicket! Unfortunately it was to no avail, at 3.00 o'clock with a chance of a 20:20 still in the offing, the rain fell again and despite the CPCC's Borcat prostrating himself on the square to pray to the cricket God's for relief at 3.30, whilst tea was being taken, the apocalypse struck. Rain, thunder, hail, lightening (quite possibly a plague of frogs also) and what had once been a cricket pitch was soon a boating lake (see photo's). There was now no going back and the umpires were quick to call time and tuck into another sausage roll! A real disappointment as we had been looking forward to your visit for some months and to be beaten by the weather was even more sickening then our defeat 4 years ago. Never mind, yet again we really enjoyed your guys' company and we would like to wish you all well - you are welcome at the MCC again anytime. Hopefully, should you visit again, we shall organise the weather better! Regards Andy