Accrington 156, Haslingden 157-4

I managed to win the toss on a scorching day and without hesitation decided to bat. The pitch we were given to play on looked like some turf taken out of of a Baghdad Park, the only difference was that our pitch seem to have been hit by more mortar and RPG rounds than the 'Green zone' itself. It looked like a receding bald man with a dodgy wig, there was excess grass in some places and in others there was bare dry earth! Never mind our reply started at a fast pace as runs and wickets came and fell at a frantically.

Within 20 overs we had 108 on the board for 5 wickets and then 125-9 and on a batting wicket that required us to get a score of around 200, this did not look good at all. However a last wicket partnership of 31 between Aqib 'Rambo' Javid (20) and  David ' anyone who buys and sells a house through my estate agents i'll wave the usual fee and do it for free' Stubbs (He's a partner in Mortimers (Thompson and Partners actually Zed - we must get this right as they are new board sponsors - ED) based in Accrington.....this is free advertising for you so remember the favour!) gave our score a little respect at 156 all out. Dave scored a free flowing 14 punctured with drives all around the ground! and shouts of 'Noooooo' from him echoed and reverberated around the hills of East Lancashire when Rambo played the ball straight to the bowler and wanted to run on several occasions (I'm sure somebody tied his legs together when he was running between the wickets!). Both of them put us 'top order' batsmen to shame.

The one innings of note in our score was that of Ian Johnsons (52). When he bats the coaching manual seems to go out the window, with his usual anarchic approach and executioner's eye. He has a penchant for hitting straight fours and sixes with anything pitched up to him or with width and generally treated most deliveries with equal disdain in his innings

In the field we gave our selves an outside chance when the opposition was reduced to 63-3 off 18 overs as I managed to get three wickets quite quickly. I shocked myself as I managed to find some swing and away movement bowling all three batsmen (3-43). Only one more wicket followed (Ian Johnson 1-27) as Haslingden wrapped up a comfortable victory by 6 wickets.

We fought hard in the field and managed to make the opposition work for their runs as they got the score with only 6 overs left. It was the failings and inconsistencies of our batting that let us down in this match and as mentioned earlier a score of 200 would have been more deserving of the wicket and conditions we were playing in.