10:53am Saturday 27th June 2009
Bare 159-9 *Kirkby Lonsdale 160-7 LUNEFIELD Park played host to a tense contest at the lower end of the table. Deciding to bat on a good firm wicket, the Bare openers B. Smith (34) and F. Smith (49) put together a solid opening partnership of 75.
When J. Kettlewell (4-50) removed B. Smith in the 25th over, Kirkby started to take a stranglehold on the game, as wickets fell regularly throughout the innings.
F. Smith battled on, holding the innings together with support from J. Moller (21) and A. Sharman (14).
At 133-3 in the 35th over it looked like Kirkby would be chasing a large total as Bare pressed the accelerator pedal. However, some tidy bowling from Kettlewell, Metcalfe and Pease (3-31) managed to keep the score to a manageable 159-9.
Kirkby’s reply started badly, with S. Williams out in the third over. J. Dickinson (34) and Pease (52) added 81 for the second wicket, batting steadily and putting any loose deliveries away.
With 112 on the board for only two wickets in the 34th over, Kirkby seemed to be cruising to victory.
However, the usual middle-order jitters set in and score soon became 112 for 5. B. Smith (4-55) and M. Lockwood (2-42) reined in the batsmen, and it was left to D. Williams (20 not out) - after surviving a ball rolling onto his stumps but not dislodging the bails – and J. Kettlewell (18 not out) to steer Kirkby home with an over to spare.
Arnside 153. *Burneside 155-1. THE Burneside bandwagon continues to roll after a convincing nine-wicket success against Arnside.
The home side, on the back of last week's impressive result versus Warton, batted first on what looked a greenish wicket. The ball moved about considerably early doors and Dixon took two big wickets in his first spell, removing Lee and Lenton to good deliveries.
Richardson, batting at 3, played his usual game and took the attack to the bowlers. With a few slices of luck he raced to 50 in as many balls, including 11 boundaries and a six.
At the other end, the Arnside batsmen were struggling to come to terms with the bowling and Oates bagged two wickets, including a swan dive of a catch by Airey at gully. Airey coming on at first change came in for some treatment but got his revenge as he had the prize scalp of Richardson lbw.
A run-a-ball partnership of 40 between Bullough and Brockbank gave Arnside hope and raised the 100 but Stewart removed the latter clean bowled and followed up with two more and the home side subsided to 153 all out after 40 overs. Dixon finished with 4-48 and Stewart 3-4 off four overs.
Although the scorecard reads a nine-wicket win, batting was anything but easy in the Burneside innings.
However, graft and determination gave Burneside the start they needed as both Cooper and Davies saw the shine off the new ball and got stuck into the Arnside bowlers.
Cooper was first to his 50 with 11 boundaries was the only wicket to fall for 67 and Davies took the side home with an undefeated 71 (16 boundaries). Batty - who had warmed his legs all afternoon with his pads on - finished two not out.
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