The season started with a journey to Heywood in the ECB knock-out. We made a promising start, batting with assurance at the top and middle of the order. Mike Ferguson has been appointed captain this year and lead from the front scoring 45 followed promising cameos from Haris Aziz, Luke Byrom and Joe McGregor in a total of 137 off 20 overs.
Unfortunately, we could not follow the batting performance up with the ball and were punished by Heywood, who had one excellent batsmen and another who supported at the other end. Despite this, we fought well and only ended up losing by 2 wickets in the last over of the game. Certainly, there were many positives to take from this performance.
As the season has developed, we have grown as a side and there has been marked improvement in a number of players. Whilst James Wharmby has continued to impress, showing maturity beyond his years and breaking into the first team, other less heralded players have been key to our success as a side and our most recent victory at Stand, where we were missing both James and Mike, showed our strength in depth.
Abdullah continues to progress, as does Will, who captained the side very impressively against Stand in Mike’s absence. There have also been useful contributions from Ste Ritchie who has bowled well and Arslan, who is a handy with both bat and ball.
I would like to make special mention to those players who tend to go unnoticed. Joe, Matty, Greg and Alex deserve specific praise for their attitudes and work-ethic. Each have improved immensely this season with Alex being the leading wicket-taker, Greg bowling tightly and his batting is really coming along, as is the case with Matty and Joe.
There have been a couple of blips along the way, as is to be expected. The loss at Roe Green and tie at Woodhouses were particularly disappointing but I feel that these experiences have made us a stronger unit. The positives to take from these disappointments is that we were able to bounce right back. Indeed, we have not lost a game since the defeat at Roe Green, which by our own admission, was a poor performance all-round.
The future for the rest of the season looks bright with a cup final place being secured on Sunday 9th August 2009 (keep this date free in your diaries!) and a crucial league match at home against Roe Green this Tuesday. If we can win this game then the league will be in our own hands.
I would like to praise the lads who don’t get a game every week but come down to training and work really hard. It has been very difficult this year having only lost 2 players to the under-17’s. We have about 20 players fighting to get in the team and, clearly, some lads have to miss out.
However, I would offer my encouragement to these lads because they have done absolutely nothing wrong and they will get their chance. Whilst we only lost 2 players to the under-17’s this year, we are likely to lose 10 or 11 at the end of this season and the lads that have missed out this year will almost certainly play every game next season. They have not been forgotten or overlooked but have just been unfortunate victims of circumstance.
I feel the fact that we have so many players battling for a place in the side is a great sign for the club as a whole and is indeed proof that the Prestwich conveyer-belt keeps on turning.
