After rolling out A&T for 19 in the last round, the draw for Round 2 of the Sunday Premier Cup saw Clifton 3s host Royton 3s, who are also opposition from 4 divisions below Elliot's Sunday Prem table toppers.
After winning the toss and opting to bat, Royton's young openers (both u13s still) made their way out to the middle. Only 3 deliveries later though, young Fawcett was heading back to the changing rooms after being shinned up by Oli Dunn. His replacement also only managed to survive two deliveries before being caught behind by 3s debutant, Fred Breidenbach, with the last ball of the first over.
The Clifton field surrounded young Fred (aged 12) to congratulate him on his first victim in senior cricket, and hopefully what is the first of many senior appearances for Clifton.
Oli Dunn then took his figures to 3-1 after only 14 balls when cleaning up the number 4 to leave the visitors reeling at 3/3. That was very soon 16/4 as Oli took his 4th following a sharp catch from Dan Jones diving to his right.
Oscar then chipped in with 2 wickets in his next 2 overs with a caught and bowled and a catch from Elliot at mid on. At 19/6 it very much looked like Clifton would be bowling a side out cheaply once again, but they'd already reach double the A&T total by the time Elliot picked up a wicket and Dunny wrapped up his 5-fer with a superb catch from Dan Jones, chasing one back over his head towards the clubhouse.
Dunn loves the 3s Cup with 5-fers in both of his games so far in this competition, showing figures of 10-26 from 15 overs bowled. Pretty impressive.
Royton eventually finished on 83, which had to be applauded when it looked for all the world that they could be rolled for less than 40 for the majority of the innings.
Clifton were always going to chase down a score like that,and they did so with ease via a 26 from Luke Jones and an impressive 49* from Oscar Thorpe, who punished every short ball with his long levers to send the ball racing to the boundary.
Tougher opponents will await in the next round as Clifton look to defend their Sunday Premier Cup title.