Clifton came out on the right side of a low scoring thriller on Saturday, keeping hopes of Premier League survival alive, where a trip to Royton next weekend must result in matching or bettering the result that Denton West pick up against Horwich to ensure next season is spent in the top division for the 12th consecutive season; something no other club in the GMCL has been able to achieve.
Rock bottom Shaw arrived with a side that is unrecognisable to the one that started the season, after multiple jumps overboard onto lifeboats from the sinking ship. The visitors won the toss and chose to have a bat, and it looked like a few more of them were ready to abandon ship at 2/2 in the early exchanges.
The first breakthrough game from only the second ball of the match, with Crossy clattering the stumps, before doing so again in his next over, then drawing the edge a few overs later. Sleighty had one caught at slip and at 15/4 it looked like an early finish was in store and an embarrassing defeat for the basement boys.
Their sub pro restored some order with 33 before being trapped in front by Crossy, then from being 64/8, Shaw managed to post 125, mainly thanks to a frustrating 40 run partnership for the last wicket, which was finally taken with a stumping to give young Owen his second wicket of the match.
Crossy was the pick of the bowlers with a magnificent 5 for 40 from his 15 over spell, backed up well be Sleighty with 3-35 and Owen Hogben 2-23, but Shaw should really have been walking off with a fair few under a hundred to defend.
The chase of 126 got off the mark with a boundary from the first ball to McManus, who only managed to pick up 6 more runs in the first 4 overs before having to make way for Crossy, who joined Donaldson in the middle where the pair of them made it look easy as they knocked off almost half the required runs without concern inside 11 overs.
With Crossy (17) then hearing the dreaded death rattle behind him, Donaldson (19) was treated to the same noise himself an over later, before Joe Settle (0) was hit on the pads in the following over, and 57/4 meant work required from the rest to get over the line.
Hamilton joined Sam Dorsey in the middle, but could only manage 9 before his stumps were rearranged, closely followed by Dan Jones (0) and Zach Flaxman (0) both being caught. 81/7 spelt trouble and relegation was only 3 wickets from bejng confirmed.
Owen Hogben joined Sam at the crease and displayed grit and bottle for a well made 15 to get Clifton within 20 of the total before being stumped. Job done young man.
Over to Sleight to support Sam, a role which lasted only 2 balls before a soft catch at mid on when he was trying to hit the ice cream van. Match awareness.
Liam strolled out at 11 to join his younger brother in the middle, putting his experience and cricket brain to use in an intelligent supporting role, taking no risks in the pursuit of the 22 runs needed as over by over the pair of them slowly chipped away at the target.
With down to 7 runs needed, Sam flicked one off the pads into the fence for a maximum to tie the scores, bringing huge cheers around the ground. Those cheers turned to gasps of relief as the next delivery met the inside edge and ran away to the fine leg boundary to seal victory, with the captain’s superb unbeaten 36 taking the relegation battle to the final weekend.
Clifton now sit 3 points above Denton West in what is now a match up to join Egerton and Shaw in Prem 2 next season.
Royton here we come….