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Cup delight

Dave Lawrenson
7/ 8/2008

TWO local cricket clubs lifted trophies at the weekend with Monton and Weaste beating Heywood by seven wickets in the Central Lancashire League’s Wood Cup final and Walkden overcoming Tonge by three wickets in the Bolton League’s Hamer Cup final.

But Roe Green lost their Lancashire County League Walkden Cup final with Stand by 31 runs and Little Hulton face a Bolton Association Cross Cup final replay with Atherton following an amazing stalemate.

Monton’s success against a Heywood side playing in their sixth successive final represented their first piece of silverware since joining the league four years ago. They lost to Heywood by 10 wickets in the 2005 final and always looked likely to avenge that defeat after bowling out Heywood for 132 runs on Sunday.

A brilliant run out by Lee Dale and a caught and bowled by Brendan Nash saw off Heywood’s professional Ruvin Peiris and overseas amateur Royce Blight within the space of two overs while Craig Duxbury finished with figures of four wickets for 15 runs.

A 76-run partnership between professional Nash and captain Trent Scott was the cornerstone of Monton’s successful run chase. They hit 46 not out and 35 runs respectively before an unbeaten 22 by Gaurav Sharma steered Monton passed the victory post.

Nash was named the man of the match and Scott picked up the player of the tournament award. And Monton have four other finals to look forward to over the coming weeks – the Twenty20 Cup final, the second string’s Burton Cup final with Littleborough plus cup finals for the under-16s and the under-14s.

League champions Walkden were made to sweat in their cup final with Tonge at Greenmount.

A six-wicket stand of 78 runs helped Tonge to post a 188-run total.

Walkden looked comfortable in reply early on with Steve Higson and professional Praveen Gupta scoring 61 and 53 runs respectively. But they suffered a middle order collapse before their battling qualities saw them through.

Roe Green had Stand struggling on 93 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their final at Stand. But the home side went on to make 154 runs despite professional Danny Jones taking 4-15. And Roe Green never looked likely to top that total after losing two early wickets, including that of the in-form Jones.

Stuart Errington hit a rapid 29 but they were all out for 123 runs.

Little Hulton were skittled for 209 runs in their final with Atherton at Flixton with Mark Penny having amassed a superb 81 runs.

In reply, Atherton thought that they had won the game with a single off the final ball bringing them to 209-8. But the rules later revealed that, in the final only, the game should be replayed if the scores are level at the end of the match irrespective of the number of wickets lost.

As a result, only the second cup final replay in the competition’s history will take place at Flixton on Sunday, August 17.