Match Report: Womens XI
Burnley vs Church.
After defeating Church on their home ground a few weeks ago, our Women’s team fell to defeat in the reverse fixture at Haffner’s Turf Moor in a T20 tie on Friday night. The girls put up a much better display than the previous week’s fixture but fell to back to back defeats after a win in their first game of the summer.
The Burnley Women won the toss and elected to field first, a decision which caused early struggles for Burnley. As Church piled on the runs between the two openers batters, a huge partnership of 132 was reached before Burnley finally made a breakthrough and took their first wicket after 16.3 overs, thanks to Becca Wilkins, who removed the visitors highest scoring batter for a rapid 83 from only 57 balls, Becca then followed that up with another wicket at the end of her over to inflict some damage to Church, Hannah Hulme claimed the third wicket with the last ball of her spell with only an over left in the first innings. Church managed to finish on 151-3 from their allotted overs. Becca bowled 2 overs for 17 runs and 2 wickets, whilst Hannah had figures of 4-0-21-1.
The chase didn’t begin well for the hosts, as they lost Iqra to a run out only three balls into the reply. Thankfully losing one wicket didn’t lead to a collapse as it did the week before, with Jess Gizon and Emily Brunt putting together a good partnership of 42 before Emily lost her wicket, managing to reach 19(22) though and batting well. Hannah Hulme was next in, and along with Jess they put on a stand of 28 before Hannah was dismissed, reaching 16 from 23. Jess was then joined by Erin Curyer, who helped Jess to reach her 50 in the penultimate over of the innings.
The match was out of reach for Burnley at this point, down to good bowling from Church, but Jess was chasing her milestone. After Hannah was dismissed, Burnley were 73-3 after 14.2 overs. But over the next 20 balls that Jess faced, she scored 27 runs to reach and surpass her 50 before being out with the last ball of the match, her innings finished with 54 runs from 61 balls, and seven 4’s.
Burnley managed to reach 111-4 after their 20 overs, falling short of Church by 40 runs in the end. But it was a valiant effort and better performance following what happened the week before, and good positives can be taken from that performance.
Match Report: Second XI
Norden vs Burnley.
Burnley were subjected to a heavy defeat at League leading Norden, suffering another loss that has seen them lose the momentum that was being built up around the midway point of the season. The second team find themselves now only 6 points above relegation.
The hosts won the toss and inserted themselves to bat first, though it was a better start with the ball for Burnley, thanks to Oscar Halley, who took 2 wickets for only 14 runs in his first 5 overs with the ball, removing both openers and keeping Norden quiet as they sat on 25-2 after the opening 10 overs. A partnership of 57 stabilised things for Norden, as number three and four batters both reached a half century. Ben took his one wicket of the match in his 11th over to break the stand, but runs kept flowing at a quick rate on the small ground, whilst wickets were slow to arrive for the visitors.
It was however a landmark day for debutant Olly Dugdale, making his first appearance in senior cricket for Burnley. He was able to do some damage to the middle order of Norden, picking up 3 wickets from his 9 overs against 62 runs. Another opposition player reached 50 in this time, from only 36 balls, as Norden kept accelerating towards the end of the innings. Gareth picked up a wicket towards the end of the innings, to stem the tide slightly, whilst Oscar picked up his third of the game in the last over of the innings to finish with 3-50 from his 12 overs. Norden finished on 241-8 from their 45 overs.
The Burnley reply began well, with Aarav opening in his last second team game for Burnley, and Leo alongside. The pair reached 53 from 65 balls and looked at ease with the bowling and run rate, but it all turned around after the opening partnership was broken. Aarav departed first, falling for 20 from 31, with Leo joining him back in the dressing room 4 balls later, finishing 30 from 39, which turned out to be the highest score in the Burnley innings.
From being 53 without loss, the visitors lost 10 wickets then for only 29 more runs, in the space of 80 balls. Only Hassan Sadaqat managed to reach double figures after the openers achieved that feat earlier in the innings, 5 batters were dismissed without scoring. The first and second change bowlers for Norden taking 10 wickets between them, spinner Jake Hall taking 6 for 13 from 7.1 overs as the stand out bowlers for the hosts. Burnley were bowled out in the end for only 79 runs with 20.5 overs left to bat. Falling short of the Norden total by 162 runs.
Match Report: First XI
Burnley vs Norden
The first team extended their winning run to 3 games and pushed the lead at the top of the league to 26 points as they fought to win a tough game against Norden at Haffner’s Turf Moor. Cheered on by the football fans who returned for the start of the season, they are becoming favourites now for winning the Lancashire League once again.
Norden won the toss and elected to bat first, and a solid start for Norden saw them reach 43 before the first wicket fell in the 15th over with Fergus taking his first of the match. Ocki applied more pressure, as his first 16 balls only went for 2 runs before his 17th saw him claim his first wicket of the game. Ishaq Khan then repaid the captain's faith for putting him on to bowl by taking the key wicket of the set Dom Humphreys who had just reached 50 before Ishaq dismissed him with the very next ball.
A partnership of 35 followed, where Norden looked to stabilise without losing any more wickets. But after that small period of recovery, 4 wickets fell in 5 overs for just 11 runs to put Burnley back in the ascendancy again. Bharat and Ocki taking two apiece in that period, which also included a terrific leg-side stumping from Chris Burton off Ocki to dismiss the Norden pro with the second ball after the drinks break, showing that even when he doesn’t play regularly, Burts will always be class with the gloves.
Norden have Oliver Makin to thank for ensuring they didn’t end up collapsing more cheaply, he helped the last three wickets to add 48, finishing unbeaten himself on 36 at the end of the innings. It was Fergus, Ocki and then Jack Brunt who helped to end the Norden innings in the end, bowling out their number 11 with only two balls left in the innings, as they looked to score as many runs as they could at that point. Ocki had the best figures of the game for Burnley, coming out with 15-2-44-4, taking him back to the top of the league standings for most wickets this summer. Norden all out for 174.
It was not an easy chase for Burnley though, the openers managed to reach 29 before losing Qasim for the first wicket. Jack Brunt followed soon later, trying his shovel against the opposition pro Dom Bess. Ocki joined Liam Bedford in the middle, with the two of them adding 32 before Liam was dismissed for 37(57) to leave Burnley 78-3 at the start of the 22nd over. The Burnley innings was beginning to mirror the Norden one, as Matt Roberts joined Ocki to try and cement Burnley’s position in the game, a strong partnership of 42 followed, but 3 quick wickets again turned the game around, as Matt(23), Ocki(40) and Adam Hodge(0) were all out in the space of 3.3 overs for only 10 runs.
Burnley were left 130-6, needing 45 more runs in 11.1 overs with Joe McCluskie and Bharat in the middle. The pair of them batted well together in the recent T20 semi-final and would need to again to ensure Burnley didn’t drop points to the rest of the league. Fortunately they carried on their good batting form as a pair, leading Burnley towards the total at a steady rate, they only hit one boundary between them in the first 8 overs they faced, approaching the total without taking undue risk.
The two added 42 together in just under 10 overs before Joe was eventually out for a well crafted 22 with Burnley only needing 3 more to win, which came two balls later with Burty at the crease, the winning runs coming in wides to take Burnley over the line with 10 balls to spare, and 3 wickets left. Burnley claimed all 12 points on a day where they showed good grit to chase down a total where they didn’t always look in full control. Ocki managed to pass 500 league runs for the summer, whilst Baz passed 2500 runs in all Lancs League matches.
Match ReportL Third XI
Great Harwood vs Burnley
Burnley followed up their victory against Haslingden last week, with a win over third place Harwood to keep them in touch with the league leaders as the end of the season begins to approach. Managing to take 10 points away with them as they made what could have been a difficult chase look easy, mainly thanks to Leo Tomllnson. It was a bittersweet victory however, as this was also the farewell for Aarav, who played his last game for Burnley before he departs for life in Australia.
The hosts won the toss and chose to bat first, a decision that was backed up by a strong start from the Harwood top order. An opening partnership of 65 started the innings up, the stand broken via the vast experience of Simon Edmonson bowling and Gareth Halley doing the catching. As one opener departed, the other carried on scoring, reaching 64 from as many balls, before a lofted drive from the bowling of Gaz led to a terrific running catch from Francis Woodruff. Two more quick wickets followed, the first belonging to Joe Holden which was his first senior wicket for Burnley, and the second was from the bowling of young Milo Kenyon, Leo Tomlinson playing a big part in both wickets as he took a stuming for Joe and a good catch up to the stumps from Milo. After a good start that saw them reach 104-1 , Great Harwood were pulled back to 114-4 after their opening 20 overs.
A couple of decent partnerships followed which stemmed the loss of wickets for the hosts, the first partnership was worth 34 before a surprise and sharp bouncer from Oscar Halley was caught by Leo. That was followed by the next batting pair adding 26 when Milo got one to shoot along the floor and rattle the stumps. Aarav himself was unlucky not to get a couple of wickets in his last game, with two dropped chances off his own bowling. Harwood were 174-6 with 7 overs left at this stage, looking for quick runs, which led to them losing a couple more wickets, Gareth taking his second whilst Ben the Bar took his one for the game in the penultimate over. The home team finished their 40 overs at 209-8, with wickets shared around the bowlers, Joe Holden, Oscar Halley, Ben Sutcliffe and Simon Edmonson all claimed a wicket each, whilst Gareth and Milo, at opposite ends of their cricketing careers, both took two.
The chase got underway, and started off well. Aarav and Leo notched up 56 inside 11 overs, but the breakthrough was made and saw Aarav leave the field for the last time in a Burnley shirt, making 25 from 32 in his last knock. He finishes his year in the thirds with 445 runs at 44 and will be sorely missed by everyone down at the club. His dismissal brought Ali Syed to the crease, which was a partnership that took the game away from Harwood. Leo reached his first 50 of the season from only 55 balls, which included one huge six into the trees, a shot that would have cleared the rope on any boundary in the league. Two more sixes followed, in consecutive deliveries, after he reached 50 to bring up the 50 partnership between the Burnley batters, coming off only 45 balls.
They remained unbeaten together at drinks, Burnley sitting on 113-1 after 20 overs, ahead of the rate without taking many risks and looking set to continue. Needing 97 from the second half of the innings. Leo and Ali continued on their way for most of the chase, the two of them put on 126 from 19.4 overs together, only coming to an end when Leo was eventually bowled, just 10 short of his maiden hundred, finishing 90 from 93, including four 4’s and four 6’s. His highest score in any competition for Burnley and was a match winning knock for his team. Wickets did begin to fall after the big partnership was broken, with Simon, Abel and Oscar all coming and going, but the match was only heading one way, with Ali still in at the other end. Once Leo was out, Ali accelerated, he was 58 from 57 when Simon walked in, and when the game was finished, he ended up on 84 from 67, he scored 26 of the 28 needed to make sure Burnley got over the line without any major issues, including a 6 when only 2 was needed to win.
Burnley won with 5 wickets down, and 5.5 overs left spare at the end of the game. They cement their spot in second, with a game in hand against the teams around them in the table. Taking 10 points today thanks to a dominant batting display, chasing down 200+ and making it look easy.