White Coppice 1st XI may have lost but Chris Hoyle’s maiden 50 helped the 2nd XI to a 64-run win over Vernon Carus IV XI.
However, his innings was surpassed on Sunday as Tom Bramhall’s unbeaten 73 saw his side beat East Lancs by two wickets in a pulsating finish.
2nd XI skipper Martin Cuerden won the toss for the fifth week in a row and elected to bat, due to a one very short boundary and missing two of his main bowlers from last week.
Cuerden and fellow opener Sharu Ughradar shared a 1st wicket partnership of 52 – the side’s second 1st wicket half century partnership of the season – before Cuerden slapped one to mid-on for 24.
His dismissal came a couple of overs after he pulled something in his back, restricting his movement and involvement in the rest of the match.
Ughradar was dismissed for a patient 18 before Jeff Smith (39 off 50 balls) and Chris Hoyle combined for a third wicket partnership of 64 before the aggressive Smith departed with the score at 129.
It was the perfect platform for Anis Haider, who wasted no time in hitting 20 off his first seven balls.
Haider smashed 40 off just 18 balls, including three sixes, and dominated a 55-run partnership with Hoyle.
Syed Bukhari joined the fun, hitting his third ball for a monster six.
Hoyle started the final over on 42 with his team-mates willing him to record his maiden 50.
He hit the first ball for 2 however he failed to connect with the next three, before hitting a 4 and then scrambling a 2 off the final ball of the innings to bring up his first ever fifty and spark wild celebrations.
Coppice finished on a competitive 214-4 but their bowling reserves were already depleted by the absence of Nathan Shepard and Adam Mannan before Cuerden’s injury.
It all meant Coppice were down to just one of the bowlers who bowled out Gregson Lane cheaply last week.
Syed Bukhari stepped up to take the new ball with Anis Haider, and after an expensive first over came back well, taking a sharp caught and bowled chance to take the first wicket.
Vernon’s other opener Abdullah Tarakhil took the aggressive route, looking to attack at every opportunity before nailing one straight to Cuerden at mid-on for 23, who was grateful he didn’t have to move.
Jeff Smith kept things tight, bowling 10 overs on the spin to take 2-38.
At the other end Ubaid Rehman took a wicket with his third ball on his way to 2-43.
Special mention to Max Lawrenson, who despite not playing a lot over the last few years due to university commitments, showed no rust and capped an exceptional performance in the field with a catch.
The home side finished 150-6 to hand White Coppice a 64-run win. The only slight downer on the day was that Coppice’s haul of six wickets meant they only managed to secure 10 points.
· White Coppice 1st XI lost by five wickets to their local rivals Whittle & Clayton-le-Woods in their Division 5 clash on a day when not much went right.
Whittle won the toss and decided to bowl first on a helpful track.
With regular openers Bobby Wood and Chris Maguire both unavailable, Janayed Ilyas and Dan Preston opened the batting.
They both fell victim to the prolific David Bath, who now has 48 wickets for the season.
Special mention for Preston, who top scored with 24 off 27 balls despite not playing much this year before being bowled.
Coppice’s highest run scorer this season, Ryan Adderley, made his first appearance for three weeks and looked very unfortunate to be given LBW as the home side slipped to 46-3.
Five batsmen scored between 11-17 without reaching 20 as Coppice were eventually dismissed for 121 in the final over, which looked about 30 runs light.
Jordan Halliday dug in for a patient 48-ball 13 while Ian Aldred scored a disciplined 17 off 44 balls.
Aldred made the perfect start with the ball when he had Jawad Kayani caught behind with the first ball of the Whittle innings.
The match-winning innings was played by Ikram Wadiwala, who hit an unbeaten 57 off 130 balls.
Coppice thought they’d dismissed Wadiwala twice – once bowled and once run out – but despite the ball hitting the stumps the ball failed to dislodge on both occasions.
At 64-4 it was game on but a fifth wicket partnership of 47 between Wadiwala and Whittle captain Jake Evans (22) took the game beyond Coppice, who slip to sixth in the league.
· Tom ‘Boom Boom’ Bramhall guided Coppice’s Sunday XI to a thrilling two-wicket win against East Lancs.
Chasing 175 to win, Coppice were 131-7 and staring down the barrel of defeat before Bramhall took centre stage.
He blasted an unbeaten 73 with 10 fours and two sixes to spark wild scenes of celebration.
To give his innings some perspective the next highest Coppice score was 16.