It was a tale of two drinks breaks at Clifton on Sunday asthe 3rds opened their campaign against Denton West. Batting first, the Westopeners survived a couple of scares before dominating the bowling to the tuneof 83-0 at drinks, moving the score to exactly 100 before Sam Winstanleyfinally broke through.
There followed the most remarkable collapse as Sam followedup with wickets in all his next three overs before Owen Hogben joined in thecarnage with a couple falling in one over. Sam finished with a creditable 4-15off his eight overs, whilst Owen's eight cost 31 for his three wickets as tenwickets fell for 34 runs with no batsman apart from the openers managing doublefigures.
The Clifton reply was a stuttering affair to say the leastwith the early batsmen seeming to think that they had to play shots off everydelivery as if they were on a July shirt front rather than an April greentop.Their reward for their inauspicity was a scoreboard which read 16-4 before Owenand Ollie Dunn started to graft their way to a match winning partnership of 70that oozed maturity and patience.
It took a dodgy lbw to separate them with Ollie fallingdubiously for an excellent 38 off 63 balls. Owen kept his head and with LewisKeogh struggling to find the middle of the bat, they chipped away at the run aball target. Suddenly, Lewis found the sweet spot and launched fourteen runsoff three balls to end any hopes of the visitors providing a close finish.
Owen went on to complete an extremely mature 59 not out,finishing with a mighty six over the machine shed with a full fourteen balls togo, securing what looked early on, to be an improbable five wicket victory.