Season 2007
Enfield V's Burnley (Saturday May 5th)
Another nail-biting finish at Dill Hall Lane saw Enfield 'wow the devoted followers' and snatch a 1 wicket victory over champions Burnley to confirm their title challenging credentials. Adam Bracewell slammed a 'punishing' "but I got 10 fours and 8 sixes and i just seemed to give all the bowlers some punishment - it all went right [Accrington Observer 11th May]", (apparently Christina now works for the observer) brilliant career best 116 after Burnley had made 229-7. Bracewell hit ten fours and eight devastating sixes in his run a ball knock "one of the best knocks ive seen by an amatuer, oh apart from that 13 not out Howard kerr made that time for the thirds" (Seddy) after his side had slipped to 62-4 with professional Brandon Hiini (18) back in the pavilion. Black velvet (32) added 98 for the 5th wicket with the Punisher, but wickets started to tumble and when the centurian was out, 8 runs were still wanted. Going into the final over Enfield needed 3 to win with the last pair of Neil Holmes and Bernard Reidy at the crease. Holmes 'keep the crowd on their toes and the boys sh*tting themselves' took five balls to reduce the target to 2, but veteran Reidy had no trouble in finding the boundary striking the last ball with his zimaframe to end the match in style and show Holmes how they do it on his patch. Professional Jon Harvey took 5-54 for Burnley and Jonathan Clare had earlier continued his own fine form with 70, adding 92 for the 2nd wicket with Vishal Tripuppi (51). Harvey added 40 before being superbly caught at long on by Sam Reidy (4-63) " I cant believe he got to that, he rose like a salmon, so agile - you wont see many better than that ill tell you" (Martin Cook) and Chris Burton hit 39 for last years champions.
Also a special note for Vishal Tripuppi who ran away with the sportsmans prize not only for his well balanced temprement, grace, modesty in defeat, cut off sleeves and general pleasantness but for his tears at the end of the game to water next weeks wicket for the seconds - cheers trip......however rumour has it that it was a split decision and he only won the prize on account of his handbrake skid in his sh*t little shed of a Micra on arrival to the ground. Im spent. see you all next week.....
Sam
Rishton V's Enfield (Sunday 29th April)
The clash of the joint leaders at the Blackburn Road ground went the way of the Enfield Monsters who hung on in there and came away from Rishton with a 6 wicket win. Enfield started the match well with Hiini offering up some nice gentle swingers and Neil 'pace like fire' Holmes hitting the straps to put on some early pressure and take some early wickets however Saeed Anwar Jnr had other ideas and started bludgening the enfield attack, before " he just stopped him in his tracks, he was making the ball talk" (Aadam Bracewell) Sam Reidy B Jnr intervened, nevertheless he hit a fantastic 101 in Rishton's 193-9 with only John Seedle (35) and skipper Andy Bartley (11) making double figures of the other batsmen. Bernard Reidy's wicket laden weekend continued with the veteran picking up 4-50 to make it a round dozen victims in two days, unfortunately he had to be rushed off after the game because he was late for bingo, dominoes and tea and biscuits with his friends back at the social club.
Enfield's reply began slowly with Garth Wyse (3-66) picking up the wickets of Craig 'white Peter Andre' Fergusson (9) and Mas Ahmed (4). Anwar removed Sam 'midnight hour' Reidy for 23 but professional Brandon Hiini teamed up with Adam Bracewell to put Enfield in the driving seat. The New Zealander hit five fours and a lucky six in his 57, adding 77 with Bracewell who opened up on the dismissal of his partner. A punishing 87 came from the next 10 punishing overs with Adam 'the punisher' Bracewell hitting a punishing match winning unbeaten career best 83 (little they did know - this was just the preview you fools), adding a punishing 55 with Andy ' Black velvet' Barker who finished unbeaten on 5 - and without those 5 runs enfield would not have won. In the dressing room the punisher bracewell punished the punishful boys over making such a punishing game out of what shoud have been a lot easier- punished.
Adam
Enfield V's Haslingden (Saturday April 28th)
After the ‘ass twitching’ finish of the Bacup game (cheers Brandon), the lads were hoping for more of a composed victory over fellow title challengers Haslingden.
After winning the toss and deciding to bowl first, things started quite slowly for us as Brandon and Holmesy both bowled good opening spells, but with not much luck. The Hassy openers frustratingly chipped their way to 40odd without loss before ‘B string’ removed knowles caught and bowled for 14. This sparked a collapse for the visitors as Dave and ‘B’ removed the next 5 batsmen for 19 runs, the last being Stuart ‘The Cat’ Catterall after finally using up his 9 lives.
This left them reeling at 69-6, and at this stage hoped to rap up the tail for less than 100. The visitors had other plans however and recovered thanks to late order resistance by Leighton Paul (24), Andrew Smith (25) Lee Ingham (23) and Muneeb Ahmed an unbeaten 21. All somehow managing to manufacture runs with a few wild swipes, and a couple of feisty blows (not to mention 2 towering 6’s off Bernard’s lad), but they had no answers to ‘B’ who captured the last 4 wickets, leaving him with exceptional figures of 8-42. Showing theirs still plenty of life in the old dog yet! Haslingden finishing on 165 all out.
The plan in the dressing room was to get a solid start, and then just gradually work our way towards the low target of 165……….but things don’t always go to plan as we found out in the 3rd over when our reply was in ruins at 6-3! Former Accy bowler Jimmy Hayhurst removed Sam ‘Snick a half volley’ Reidy (2), then next ball managed to ‘slither’ one past Snake’s defence to send him packing first ball. Then next over Brandon, fresh from his debut half century, also went first ball to his opposite number Christian. Wickets continued to fall as Fergie, (8) and Adam the otter (24) failed to build the foundation that we badly needed. When ‘Black Velvet’ was joined at the crease by his young apprentice ‘White Satin’, the score was 40-5 and we seemed in deep trouble. However, the game finally started to swing our way as The Silkmen unleashed hell on the bowlers and put together a superb century stand to push us towards the victory target. With only 30 needed for victory, Velvet (54) was dismissed by Hayhurst, then shortly after Sizzler (35) tried launching a straight one into Blackburn, but missed and was out LBW. Two more wickets then tumbled, Mick ‘drainpipes are back’ Devenney, and T-Cake both falling cheaply. This left the last pair Dave and B at the crease with still 9 runs needed. This wasn’t a problem for the Bowlers and they showed cool heads while all up in the dressing rooms were losing theirs!!! Dave finishing the game with a 4 to reach the target with 3 overs to spare……..easy!!
Adam
Enfield V's Bacup (Sunday April 22nd) - Dill Hall Lane
So here we are again at the dawn of another cricket season at Enfield Cricket Club, with a new professional in Kiwi Brandon Hiini. Bringing a fresh optimism to the club and a team containing a nice balance of youth and experience, (this highlighted with the return to the ranks of Mick Devenney and with the soon return of Keith Barker Junior). With these additions one feels there may be some competition for places, an element maybe lacking in previous years.
First up to the Dill Hall Lane ground where Bacup, who came to bring a game to Enfield backed by a superb professional in Chris Harris, a professional with plenty of Lancashire league experience, and what a game they brought. For some reason I think Brandon may remember his Enfield debut if not for his fifty and the dramatic ending but the 19 over stint he endured.
So having lost the toss Enfield where asked to bat on a damp and slippery track and although they started briskly they suffered three early setbacks (Barker, Reidy, & Bracewell). So up to the plate stepped Hiiini and Ahmed to repair the early damage and help put Enfield’s innings backs on track, after the fall of Ahmed and Hiini up stepped the skipper to smash and edge and flick his way to aquickfire 31 to help swing back the pendulum in Enfield’s favour, he was also more than ably assisted by Chris 'Sizzler' Maudlsey staking an early claim for shot of the year, Mitch Taylor and without doubt the best number 11 that has ever graced the league 'Neil Holmes' to help Enfield to a challenging total of 164.
It was then the turn of Enfield to defend their total in front of an excellent show of support on the terraces given the conditions. (You know who you are). They got off to a good start with excellent and accurate opening spells of bowling from Brandon and Holmsey restricting any flow of early runs from the Bacup top order. Unfortunately professional Harris seemingly had other plans as he made his way quickly into the late forties surviving the odd scare here and there on the way in a partnership with a couple of other Bacup batsmen. Once dismissed by the B-string the wickets seemed to fall at regular intervals in an inspired spell ably supported by the pro. At this stage, and to be honest up until the final over the boys seemed to have sealed the victory but for Spenny who hit some clean boundaries in the final over to take the game to a tense last ball affair, however Spenny found a gazelle like Maudsley at short fine leg and with help from Adam 'the otter' Bracewell manufactured a great run out to give Enfield all 12 points and an ideal start to the season. Haslingden and Rishton next week, more of the same……
Sam |
