Denton West 115 all out, Denton 116-4

We lost the toss again and feared the worst when Denton West skipper decided to bat. However it was to be the only blip on a fantastic day for the club. We bowled West out for 115 with 5 wickets for Neilly, 4 for Omar and one for Ste. The boys gave Denton old boy Jamie Garde a special welcome and a send off when he was caught by Tom Stenson off Neilly for a second ball duck. Special mention to Andrew Neill on reaching 50 five wicket hauls in the Lancashire County League, a fantastic achievement. With the target set at 115 a new opening partnership of Andy Leech and Omar set about knocking the runs off. Progress was steady, we lost the first wicket on 29 when Omar was bowled by OB, next to fall was Chris closely followed by Gripper. Martin Parker and Andy then put the runs on before Andy was bowled by Kirwin on a very respectable 37. Janak came to the crease and after a scare when Martin was dropped they went on to win the game for Denton with the loss of just four wickets. Martin finishing on 40 not out.

Well done on the first victory of the season.

Denton 75-9, Flowery Field 76-4

Play didn’t look likely as it had been raining since the early hours of Saturday morning. However even the ground didn’t want us to get a couple of points as the rain drained away leaving the outfield fit for a 20 over game following tea. We lost the toss again and Flowery Field captain Damien Eyre put us in. We struggled against the excellent bowling of Mr Oddy and only managed to reach 75 in the overs with top scorer being Janak on 20. Omar and Neilly managed to pick up 2 wickets each but Flowery comfortably reached the target with overs to spare.

Denton 176 all out, Dukinfield 179-1

After being put in to bat and achieving 176 in the 50 overs, things were looking quite good. We had managed to bat the overs for the first time and made a reasonable score. Martin Leech continuing his great start to the season with a score of 40, Janak hitting form with a well made 30 and Jonny Mac coming in and hitting a very nice 26.

Dukinfield come out and attacked straight away, they lost a wicket early on but then knocked the score off without further loss. Andy Neill’s bowling figures were amazing again but we struggled from the other end. In all we dropped 6 catches and you can’t get away with that at this level.

We need a much better bowling and fielding performance if we are to get anything from Roe Green on Saturday and cup game against Irlam on Sunday.

Denton 119 all out, Woodhouses 120-4

Sunday saw us facing the current league leaders Woodhouses who in Saturday’s fixture lost their first wicket. Woodhouses won the toss and put us in which is probably what we would have done anyway. We lost our first wicket very early but Stan and Ste set about calming things down. Not many runs around today for us with top scorer being Ste on 35 before being given out LBW by Malcolm. On his return to cricket Martin Parker made a very impressive 23. Unfortunately we were bowled out for 119 and also gave them 13 overs. Our new overseas player Chris Aurisch came to us as a batsman, no one mentioned that he could bowl a bit. Two wickets yesterday at Glossop and three wickets here today have been a real bonus. Great effort in the field by the boys, we just need to bat a bit longer and give ourselves a better chance. Dukinfield at home next Saturday.

Glossop 203-4, Denton 199-7

After last weeks disastrous performance we set off for Glossop hoping for a much improved performance. Achieving a score of 199 for 8 off our 50 overs was a pleasant surprise. Good batting performances from Martin Leech 56 and Ste Wharton 30 was matched by our Aussie’s excellent score of 42. Glossop started their innings in their usual way with our ex pro Dale Pennington in great form and after surviving being dropped, went on to make 114. Glossop reached our score for the loss of just 4 wickets, 2 for Chris Aurisch, 1 for Neilly and 1 for Ste Wharton. Another defeat but a much better performance. Next up for us are the leaders of the league, Woodhouses who up to todays match had not lost a wicket. Watch this space.