Didsbury 5ths take down league leaders Ashley 2nds

The afternoon started very well for skip Tony Doyle, by winning the toss and deciding to bowl on what looked like a seamers paradise. It did not start well for Jon Perkins who had forgotten the trouser part of his whites and had to field in blue tracksuit bottoms for the first over.

Andy Jones and Ben Wright opened the bowling with extremely tight lines and combined with superb fielding meant Ashley were restricted to a run rate of 1 per over for the first 15 overs. The first boundary off the bat only came in the 17th over. This created obvious pressure with Andy taking the first wicket and Ben opening his account with a catch in the gully before bowling one of Ashley's danger men who seemed to be in a hurry to get on with things. Ashley rebuilt steadily, increasing the run rate and their captain A.Morfitt played and excellent, patient innings. However Jones replaced Jones, spin told and Hannah responded magnificently following some early boundaries taking four wickets as Ashley couldn't push on from their watchful start. Harris replaced Ben from the Mersey end and denied Hannah an opportunity for a 5-fer by taking 2 late wickets resulting in Ashley having to defend 113 off 46 overs.

James Johnston and Ben Wright opened the batting and played steadily, punishing the bad ball whilst keeping out the straight ones. A sumptuous square drive from Ben set the tone for the afternoon with both batsmen looking well set and it took a smart stumping by Ashley's keeper to send Ben on his way. This brought Matt Goodall to the crease who was unlucky to drag one one that was going far down leg. Harry Shaw joined JJ and at one point threatened to out score him, obviously keen to get back and watch the end of the Wales games. Despite some sideline heckling complaining how JJ wasn't scoring fast enough, he ended the game with a boundary through mid on and Didsbury were 25 points to the good with an 8 wicket win. A fine result against the the current league leaders.