Friday night saw Rishton’s 3rd XI playing a T20 game against Todmorden CC. The game was rearranged at the request of Todmorden from Sunday, to allow the Todmorden players to watch their 1st XI in the Worsley Cup Final.
Todmorden won the toss and elected to bat, and when they found themselves 3 for 2 in the third over it may have seemed to be a bad decision on their part.
However with opener Gledhill going on to score 34, Douglas 17 and Brown 10, Todmorden went on to post a score of 86 all out in 19.5 overs.
Sahan Senapathi took 4 for 9 of 4 overs, Bailey Leathert 3 for 21 off 3.5 and Adam Hussain 2 for 16 off 4.
When Rishton came out to bat they struggled from the start with just Senapathi (10) and Archie Kavanagh (13) being the only players to hit double figures, with Rishton eventually being bowled out for just 44 off 13.2 overs.
Both the 1st’s and 2nd’s faired much better on the Saturday with both teams securing victories of Nelson CC’s 1st and 2nd XI’s.
Rishton 2nd’s were at home to Nelson’s 2nd XI, with Nelson winning the toss and putting Rishton in to bat.
Rishton started well putting on 39 before opener Mushtaq Ahmed was dismissed for 21. Fellow opener Senapathi went on to score 50 from 102 balls including 5 fours and a six, before he was dismissed with the score on 111 for 4. Captain Matt Nuttall scored 23 and Ash Patel hit a quick fire 57 no from 30 balls including 4 fours and 5 sixes, with Rishton posting a score of 197 for 8 from their 45 overs.
Some good accurate bowling early on by Khan and Patel slowed the Nelson reply, though with Bradley (38), Lister (20), Gildea (35), Asghar (24) and Moghal (23) all scoring well it looked at one time the Rishton total was under threat, but some good bowling by Senapathi the Nelson tail went from 154 for 6 to 173 all out, with Rishton posting a 24 run victory.
Over at Nelson the 1st’s won the toss and elected to field. Rishton started well with the ball, having Nelson 28 for 3 at one point before Nabeel Ahmed and Ashir Imdad moved the score on to 112 before the fourth wicket fell. Wickets 5,6,and 7 all fell with the score on 130 and Nelson collapsed to 144 all out from 44.4 overs.
Shaun Hutchinson and Ali Sartaj took 3 wickets apiece and Brad Boddie and pro Keiren Grimshaw pitched in with 2 wickets each.
Rishton took to the field to bat with Josh Whitehead (21) and Richard Fox (18) opening and they put on 44 runs for the first wicket and Rishton had moved on to 61 when the second wicket fell. With Grimshaw (60) and Boddie (36) having a partnership of 87 runs they ran out easy winners hitting 148 for 2 off just 33.3 overs for a convincing victory.
On the Sunday the 4th XI were away at Littleborough, and having won the toss they elected to bat.
With Paul Clifford (26) and Martin Halleron opening the batting, Rishton made a promising start, putting on 36 runs for the first wicket. However with wickets then falling at regular intervals Rishton found themselves at 59 for 9 with just Ben Hartley (25) and Paul Clark (25) at the crease. The pair did put on 52 runs for the final wicket before Hartley was run out. Rishton finishing on 111 all out from 38 overs.
Rishton made a good start with the bowl and when Graham Lightbown dismissed Jawaad Hussain for a duck with the score on 6 it looked like 111 may be a defendable score. However with opener Izzak Schofield posting a score of 54 and captain Matthew Fitton finishing on 19 not out, Littleborough scored 112 for 8 off 35.2 overs to win by 2 wickets.
