The thirds started their defence of the Sunday Premier Cupwith an away day at the Gin Pit against their thirds who play two divisionsbelow Elliot's Emergent Entities.
It was difficult to tell which was the Premier Division teamas the Pitmen roared out of the traps, sending back Anuj, Ollie and Ethan withonly 16 on the board. For the second day in a row, Sam rode to the rescue withanother composed half century and, supported by Lewis (26), Dan (35) and Owen(20) they took the score to 182-8. It needs to be recorded at this point, thatin an all too rare moment of sportsmanship these days, A&T stalwart PaulHiggins recalled Owen to the wicket after he'd been given out to a deliverythat wouldn't have hit ten sets of stumps, for which he received a warm anddeserved round of applause from the sidelines.
At this point, the game turned into a jaw droppingspectacle, starting with Oscar's strike with the very first ball of theinnings. Looking through the history books, Clifton's lowest recorded score wasseven all out, a feat registered some 83 years ago in 1943, and as the homeside's batsman crumbled, it looked like that score could be challenged as thescore advanced from 0-1, to 1-2, 1-3, 1-4 and then 3-5.
The remaining batsmen ground out the odd run to move to10-9, before Ethan kindly obliged with eight wides before having Mr Higginscaught by the skipper with the scoreboard showing just 19. Ollie finished withthe remarkable figures of 5-5, with Oscar weighing in with 3-5 and Ethan 2-8,with none of those runs coming off the bat as the 3rds progressed to round 2 bythe margin of 163 runs.
The total of seven all out can therefore return to therecord books intact, apart from noting that the team that battered theunfortunate Cliftoners that day in 1943, were none other than Astley &Tyldesley.