The 3XI were on the hunt for a third successive Sunday Premier Cup Final appearance, where a healthy crowd had flocked to Manchester Road to back the Clifton Sunday Squad in this home semi final against Heywood.
With Elliot winning the toss and opting to bat, it was young Luke Jones that joined Oli Dunn out in the middle to get proceedings underway. Following a tentative start from both, it was Oli Dunn (12) that was first to fall with only 18 on the board at the start of the 8th over.
Regular No.3 Dan Jones joined his brother in the middle, but they spent only 3 overs together before Luke (7) was given LBW, bringing Owen Hogben out in what looked to be the key partnership if Clifton were to post a "bigg'un". But with Dan (15) attempting to bat one handed again (due to his broken finger), he never looked like his fluent self and fell to a catch at point.
A quickfire 21 from 17 from Lewis Keogh aimed to get things moving along, and an almost run a ball 26 from Owen left Clifton at 84/5 and all the big guns back in the shed, and a target of around 150 looking to be the aim. After a slow start from both Oscar Thorpe and Fred Breidenbach it made that 150 look a long way away at times.
With 10 overs to go, Oscar started to put his foot down, but was bowled for 21. A solid 10 from Chris Thorpe followed, but it was the introduction of Charlie Seddon that really ignited this innings, coming to the crease with only 4 overs to make a difference.
What followed was an exhibition of hitting in the V, which also spurred young Fred (25) into action with some clean hits of his own late on. A flurry of boundaries of clean hitting, followed by a controlled and mature nudge into the leg side to keep strike resulted in a partnership of 49 in those last 4 overs, with Charlie's 32 from 15 being vital in posting 176, which looked a pipedream an hour before.
The defence of that total got off to the best possible start, with Oscar Thorpe cleaning up their captain and opener for a 4 ball duck. Oscar was back to his fluent best, finishing with impressive figures of 5-1-7-1 and coming into form at just the right time of the season. He was excellently supported at the other end by Tom Worthington (7-1-21-2) who backed up his superb Saturday performance with the ball.
The other 3 bowlers used were all rewarded with wickets and took care of the Heywood middle and lower order with the minimum of fuss, and they never looked like getting anywhere near the daunting total. Oli Dunn (7-0-37-3) struggled with his line early on, but soon recovered to hit the money at the end of his spell, where the Hogben brothers followed each other from the bottom end (Elliot 6-1-18-1 and Owen 3.3-0-10-2) to finish the game off and roll the visitors out for 102.
The late surge from Charlie made the difference in this contest, as the mindset of coming out to bat and chasing 130 is completely different to chasing 177 against the best bowling attack in GMCL Sunday cricket; where Dan Jones and Lewis Keogh didn't even need to bowl.
The lads appeared to enjoy this victory judging by the songs of celebration echoing out from the changing rooms at the end of the game, and we've been rewarded with a home Final against Whalley Range on Bank Holiday Monday, 31st August.
Make sure you've booked Tuesday 1st September off in work....