Westmorland Cricket League reports Division One Milnthorpe 128* v Warton 71-7 - Rain affected draw Milnthorpe lost the toss and were asked to bat on a wicket that would surely help the bowlers and as the game transpired so it would prove.

Ideson and Rafferty opened for Warton as did Baldwin and Bowman for Milnthorpe. In the 3rd over Rafferty accounted for Bowman who played all round a full toss.

Ideson then chucked his hat into the ring accounting for Baldwin well held at slip by the sprightly Bovis.

Pennington(27) and Wills(26) though repaired some early damage patiently building the score towards 70.

Though Rafferty appeared to be bowling within himself Ideson was proving to be a real handful with inswing and cutters off the pitch.

New recruit Wilson was introduced by Warton and was quickly joined by skipper Crowther at the other end. Crowthers first ball was smashed for 4 by Penninton proving he will be no bitty part player this year.

However Crowther had him LBW soon after one of his 5 victims, Illingworth fell in the same vain.

When Wills was bowled with the score under 100 things went from promising to catastrophic very quickly. However Cooper(21) and Baldwin(15) got the score towards 120 and a touch of respectability.

Crowther and Wilson accounted for one a piece and now Milnthorpe just wanted to bat there allotted overs which they did apart from 5 balls as Dixon was last man out caught in the deep and only 5 runs off the last 3 overs showing how well Warton bowled.

Some persistent rain at tea was cause for the new covers to go on and 4 overs were lost before play restarted.

However it never goes a miss doesn't some water to moisten the garden and bloom them CABBAGES, which will surely be harvested soon to garnish the half time cheese board Mrs D take a bow.

Rafferty and Barrow opened and Cooper(4 for 36) had Rafferty playing on first ball, which was just the tonic needed to give Milnthorpe some early impetus and get stuck into Warton.

Bovis joined Barrow and did look to be carrying an injury as singles were turned down almost from the off.

Cooper was bowling like only he can nipping the ball around with pace and bounce well supported at the other end by Baldwin(2 for 14 off 15 overs). Cooper bowled Bovis when the in form bat shouldered arms and lost his off stump.

Baldwin then had Barrow dropped by Wills at mid off which could have proved costly, but with the pressure mounting Barrow played a loose shot and was caught soon after by Illingworth his first of 3 smart catches.

Cooper then accounted for Ideson and Dixon in the slips which now had Milnthorpe smelling victory.

Warton however do have an abundance of batting as Wilson who normally bats 3 came in to add stability to the middle order.

Nelson was finding the going tough and perhaps nothing more than you would expect also shouldered arms as Bovis did, but this time Baldwin just bowled a straight one and deceived Nelson to see middle and off pegged back.

Baldwin was forced to leave the field with a dislocated finger and Dixon entered the fray and bowled 3.3 overs conceding no runs and picking up the wicket of Heron.

Baldwin though was in no mood to stay out of the action and after some quick DIY finger jigging resumed to the attack.

Crowther and Wilson though proved to be a hurdle to far and batted the last 11 overs out with few scares to see both teams come away with 6 points.

Bowlers from both sides put in some great performances backed up with the fact 6 batsmen from 20 only managed double figures.

Arnside 228-4dec, Bolton le Sands 71* On another blustery but dry day Sands entertained Arnside who had been scoring runs for fun.

Mike Wolfenden won the toss and decided to have a bowl, raising the odd eyebrow.

It looked a good call when Jonty Hill removed Shepherd and former Kendal pro Howarth in his first two overs.

Adam Richardson joined Adrian Lee and they carved out a stand of 132, dispatching any loose deliveries to the boundary.

Lee was dropped by young Cole off his dad Alan’s bowling, and Richardson was bowled by the late inswing of Ireland for 61, Hogg started circumspectly and then Lee was unlucky to fall four short of a century with Hill hitting the stumps again.

This seemed to upset Hogg who suddenly bludgeoned 48 in the blink of an eye enabling the visitors to declare on 228 for 4 from 40 overs. Hill 3 Ireland 1 were the wicket takers, Adam Dyson and Alan Cole bowled well for no reward.

At the tea interval the football results and relegation dogfight was more the topic of conversation rather than the cricket but Sands knew they had to improve on the batting of previous weeks even with many regular first teamers missing.

Wolfenden drove Shepherd’s third ball for four then hit the next straight to backward point, whereupon Mark Clarkson hit the next two balls for four.

However Alan Cole mistimed a pull, Clarkson drove to cover point, Ireland played on to Howarth, and the the score was 25-4.

Arnside had been unable to bowl out a side this season so when stalwart Rob Clarkson was joined by the sweeping talent of Adam Dyson there was a possible was a glimmer of light.

They took the score to 57 before Dyson, fell LBW, Clarkson hit 26 in boundaries, a glorious 6 over cover being the pick, before he was bowled by Howarth for 30.

The tail soon disappeared as Howarth, who may have missed out with the bat certainly made up for it with ball. Bowling wicket to wicket he took the last 6 wickets for 6 runs in 24 balls to finish with 7-18.

Another disappointing display from Sands who remain without a point, the positive being the bowling of young Jonty Hill who is improving with every game.

Kirkby Lonsdale 50*, Shireshead 51-0 Shireshead travelled to Kirkby Lonsdale under grey skies and were surprised, in view of the poor weather, that the home side elected to bat on winning the toss.

Progress was always difficult on a damp and slow wicket with Dave Jack (3 for 8) and Gareth Jennings (2 for 19) allowing the batsmen little room for manoeuvre.

The introduction of Tom Jacques (5 for 20) increased the pressure and the Kirkby innings finally ended in the 39th over leaving Shireshead needing 51 for victory.

With one eye on the weather the Shireshead batsmen set about the task with relish, and 7.4 overs later Tom Jacques (30 not out) and Uzair Shah (20 not out) had completed the job in hand to secure 15 valuable points.

Division Two Bare 210-8, Cartmel 176-9* Bare picked up 10 points at Cartmel on Saturday in a game they should have won against a spirited Cartmel side.

Put into bat at a cool blustery Cartmel Park , Bare were given a good start by Osmotherly (38) and Smith (11) , who added 51 for the opening stand.

Westworth (40) and skipper Moller (39) then put the Cartmel bowlers to the sword adding 72 in quick time , Bare then lost both batsmen on 143 before Cook (26)with two sixes and two fours added 34 with John Sharman , Sharman (16 not out) and Bransby (14 not out) then took the score past 200 with an unbroken stand of 30 as Bare finished on 210 for 8 from their allotted overs.

Cartmel’s bowlers toiled away and D.Unsworth finished with a creditable 4 for 79 from 18 overs , Cleasby 3 for 37 from 7 , the other wicket taker was J Voakes with 1 for 23.

Cartmel in reply lost early wickets against openers Albon and Bransby who took two wickets apiece in their opening spells to leave Cartmel struggling on 57 for 4 , Macfarlane scoring 28 before being brilliantly caught by Smith off Bransby.

Curwen (34) rode his luck but along with skipper Williams added 61 for the fifth wicket to frustrate Bare who’s fielding had become somewhat ragged.

Cartmel at this stage were looking for a win as they reached 153 for 4 but the return of Albon saw wickets fall as Cartmel looked for runs and eventually as they ran out of wickets , Williams reached an unbeaten 56 and saw out the final 4 overs for a draw.

Albon bowled superbly to take 5 for 30 from 13 overs , Bransby took 2 for 31 and Lockwood and Cheetham took a wicket each as Bare had to settle for 10 points.

Division Three Ambleside 190-9*, Bolton le Sands 51.

Ambleside were put into bat on a tricky looking wicket and Bolton le Sands didn't take long to break the opening partnership with Iain Blackburn being clean bowled by a delivery from B-L-S opening bowler, Dixon with a ball that kept a little low.

Peter Southworth then took on the BLS attack scoring 30 to set a solid platform for what was to come.

At 55 for 3, Ambleside skipper Rick Smith came to the crease and scored a rapid and hard hitting 59 runs pushing the total on with overs to spare.

BLS continued to take wickets at the other end but with 6 overs to go veteran Kim Leary strode to the wicket and smashed 32 from 16 balls to leave Ambleside with a useful looking total of 190 from their 45 overs.

The BLS innings started slowly with tight bowling from Ambleside's Adam Wood and Kim Leary.

The opening partnership was finally broken with the score on 30 and then wickets tumbled in quick succession leaving BLS 51 all out.

The bowling attack was impressive with 14 year old Daniel Southworth taking 2 wickets for 5 runs off 6 overs and Kim Leary taking 4 wickets for 6 runs off 9 overs.

NOTE - Online reports are unaltered accounts as received from the clubs.