Historic day for Upton CC.

With the deserved selection of Ellen McGowan for Upton 4ths v Winnington Park (WP) 2nds it was an historic day for Upton as we welcomed our first female to play in a Saturday league team. Not only was it a proud day for Ellen and her family but also for all those people who have been involved with Upton Juniors both past and present.

However back to the game and it was thanks to our stirling Groundspeople who ensured that the game would take place. On days like this the winning of the toss is vital and as luck would have it WPs skipper called correctly and promptly asked us to have a bat on what was going to be a difficult track.

With the good Doctor and myself once again opening we faced a couple of very experienced and accurate bowlers. Ahktar got an early snorter and feathered behind bringing young Ryan to the wicket. We nudged and nurdled the score to the dizzying heights of 10 before the wicket did for Ryan and he holed out for 5. Mo then joined me at the crease and in the face of very accurate bowling and a wet pitch we dragged the score along and somewhere round about the 15th over the runs finally caught up with the overs. I must say that our efforts were not helped by the sight of scorer Scraggy falling asleep at the book!
Just as we were starting to get going I fell to a juggled catch in the slips for 23 and Mo followed shortly after for a hard earned 25 and we were 55 for 4. Simon McGowan and Johnny Pettit then came in and started putting bat to ball but Simon went for 17 and Johnny 10 and we were 91 for 6. Skipper Brucie chipped in with a quick 13 and with bits and pieces from Pieter Openshaw and Zee we ended on 98 for 8 off 45 overs. With the sun drying the wicket it was felt the score was a tad short of competitive.

But we in the 4ths always love a challenge and after a warming tea we got stuck in the WP openers. Unfortunately in Kendol Richardson, the WP opener, they had someone who could get stuck into us. He signaled his intentions early as he lifted one of our bowlers (don’t worry Scraggy I wont mention it was you) into one of the adjacent gardens. Despite this in Scraggys next over he expertly slid one down the leg side for Barnes to flick into the hands of Johnny Pettit and WP were 10 for 1 and game on.

That I m afraid was that as Richardson and Morris set about chasing down our modest total with some fearsome hitting at times. Both Zee and Mo were unlucky not to get a wicket. But with this pair hitting the ball well Brucies tried to break them by rotating the bowling. Ellen bowled three overs in her debut and did very well against two very experienced batsmen. Johnny also had a couple of overs but again could not find the breakthrough as WP sailed to a 9 wicket victory.

So still waiting for our first win but this was an experienced second team we played and on a difficult track. Next week it a visit to the picturesque Cholmondeley and hopefully our first win.

Rob Chapman