St Mary’s win U13 Lancashire cup first round.

St Mary’s progressed to the next round of the U13 Lancashire Cup with a convincing 60 run win over Kirkham Grammar School on a lovely spring afternoon.

Stanley Howarth lost the toss and St Mary’s were asked to bat first on a very interesting wicket. Sainsbury and Valentine opened the batting and got off to a steady start, playing positive cricket and running well between the wickets. The fifty partnership came up in fourteen overs with Sainsbury dominating the run scoring. When he was caught out for 28 he had provided a platform for the rest of the team. Howarth hit a quick 15 and Valentine weighed in with 10 enabling St Mary’s to reach a respectable 87 for 5 wickets.

Howarth opened the bowling and his pace soon had the Kirkham opening bats struggling. Waterhouse at the other was a perfect foil. Two wickets both bowled gave Howarth the chance of a hat trick. With batsmen trying to score from Waterhouse the ball was constantly in the air. A chance had to come and Graham took an outstanding catch at mid on to remove the Kirkham captain. Sainsbury too was then on a hat trick with two wickets both bowled. What followed was a magical display of leg spin bowling from Wilcox who took five wickets (all bowled ) for two runs to run through the Kirkham tail. He too was on a hat trick. A fantastic accurate bowling performance (9 wickets were bowled) with some amazing figures. A great start to the season.