GARGOYLES MAKE STATELY PROGRESS
On a perfect summer’s evening in the glorious setting of Chatsworth House, Alstonefield Cricket Club produced a strong all-round performance to get back to winning ways against an experienced Chatsworth XI. In a tense 20:20 match, which could have gone either way, a victory margin of 20 runs was more than could have been expected and was in good measure down to the superb performance of Andy Bray, who starred with bat and ball.
Batting first, the Gargoyles made a purposeful start, with Harry jones and Andy Bray putting on 40, with the more aggressive Bray, racing to his 25 not out. At the half way stage 49 for 2 looked promising. In his first match of the season, Will Siddons made a useful 11, while Neil Shotton punished some loose bowling in his rapid 20. Ian McKay kept the scoreboard ticking over with his 14 not out, but at 105 for 6, the Gargoyles felt they were 20 short.
At only just over 5 runs per over, the Gargoyles bowling needed to be miserly. Captain Simon Smith went for the Lancastrian opening pairing of Jones and McKay
to give the Chatsworth batsmen no pace to work with. It worked, Jones took 3 for 20 from his beautifully flighted spin in his 4 overs, while McKay dried the runs up, conceding only 8 runs from his 4 overs. Debut boy Ben King then followed up with a lively and accurate spell, further restricting the runs, going for only 17 from his 4 overs. With the pressure for runs mounting, batsmen take risks and Andy Bray’s deceptive flight was just the temptation they needed. 4 wickets for 26 runs and the match was won. Will Siddons and Simon Smith enjoyed themselves bowling at the tail, cleaning up the last 3 wickets between them. Chatsworth all out for 85. A win by 20 runs and all was well with the world.