It was a very successful weekend on the pitch for Rishton’s teams.
On Saturday, Rishton’s 4th XI played a T20 match against Norden CC. This was for the game to be played and allow players from both teams time to watch England’s Euro 24 quarter final tie against Switzerland.
Rishton won the toss and elected to bat.
After a slow start with no runs in the first over, Rishton’s openers Stuart Roberts and Paul Clifford quickly got into their stride and put on 71 runs for the first wicket when Clifford was dismissed for 41 from the bowling of Hindley, having hit 4 fours and a six in his innings.
The second wicket soon followed when Graham Lightbown was dismissed for a duck with the score on 75.
Roberts was joined at the crease by Archie Kavanagh, and the pair had put on 49, when Roberts was bowled by Omar having scored 54 off 52 bowls including 6 fours.
Rishton went on to score 141 from their 20 overs with Kavanagh being run out on the last ball having score 29 from 21 balls with 3 fours and a six.
Some excellent bowling from Rishton saw Norden struggle to get into the game, with wickets tumbling and runs hard to come by.
Only two Norden players managed to get to double figures with Donnelly scoring 38 and Mason 10, both falling to the bowling of Neil Wells.
Rayan Stewart took 3 for 8 from 4, Lightbown 3 for 2 from 2 and Wells 2 for 15 from 4.
On Sunday the 2nd XI were away to Middleton CC.
Middleton won the toss and elected to bat first.
Again some excellent bowling had Middleton struggling from the start quickly finding themselves at 25 for 4. Only three Middleton players made it to double figures, with Holmes top scoring on 43 from 84 balls.
Rishton bowlers Harvey Leathert who took 4 for 26 from 6 overs and Sahan Senapathi, 4for 11 off 5.2 overs did all the damage bowling Middleton out for 112 in 34.2 overs.
Richard Fox and Matt Nuttall opened the batting for Rishton who needed to score 104 from 38 overs due to rain interruption.
With Fox going on to score 40 not out off 65 bowls including four 4’s and Nuttall 50 off 69 including 7 4’s Rishton achieved their target of 104 off 22.2 overs to win the match.
Meanwhile back at Rishton the 1st XI were playing local rivals Great Harwood.
Great Harwood had won the toss and elected to bat first.
A steady start by Harwood saw 24 runs on the board before the first wicket fell, that of Caleb Greenhalgh, bowled by Ali Sartaj for 18.
Wickets then fell on a regular basis with Harwood reaching 86 for 6 before the rain came.
Sartaj had done all the damage taking 5 for 27 off 11 overs, ably assisted by pro Keiren Grimshaw with 1 for 21 from his 13 overs.
When the rain ended Rishton were given a target of 90 off 29 overs.
With Josh Whitehead and Luke Eddleston opening, the pair put on 39 runs before Eddleston was given out lbw for 11.
With Whitehead scoring 20, pro Grimshaw 24 and Adam Hussain 13 no and Jack Hilton 3 no Rishton hit the required runs with 6 overs to spare.