Looking to fire back after a bit of a lull the last few Saturdays, the 1s welcomed Bowdon on a hot and muggy day at Wilmslow Road. Looking down Bowdon's team sheet it mostly looked normal, a few absences so their batting wouldn't be quite as strong as usual, but nothing too out of sorts. Then you reached the last two names on the team sheet:

• Rob Lord, Nottinghamshire first class cricketer, only making his second appearance for the club this year, with a 153* under his belt against Dids back in 2022.
• Glen Chapple. Yes, that one, with all his 985 first class wickets, and 8725 first class runs.

So, it was set up to be an interesting day out. Despite the warm sun, the forecast threatened heavy showers, so when Nick won the toss, he chose to bat first and make the most of the good batting conditions while they lasted. And make the most of them the 1s did. Following on from their opening stand of 137 last week at Neston, both TH's batted superbly with control but also at a very healthy run rate to match. Negating some early swing from stand-in skipper Joe Chapple, the deck (the same one we used for the T20 against Heaton Mersey) was great for batting (good stuff Barbs). They set a fantastic platform, putting on 169 in 35 overs before Haf nicked off for a really well made 66. There had been passing showers all day, but with it probably being the heaviest it had been all day, and the wicket falling at the end of the over, we were off. In typical fashion, the rain stopped immediately, and we were back on again in just 12 minutes, but lost 3 overs from the game (no 30-minute grace period in WLD league matches!). Right after the break Abhay was caught and bowled, although it was really difficult to tell if it was a bump ball. That brought Rob in.

What followed was utter carnage (see Will Street's smashed windscreen for proof), as Tim and Rob launched a full assault on the Bowdon bowling lineup, adding 119 in just 12 overs, before Tim was caught by Glen Chapple (couldn't have picked out much safer hands) for another fantastic ton, 129 off 138 balls, and 583 runs in his last 7 knocks.
That didn't slow Rob down however, as he immediately took 25 off a Lord over. He then reached his own century off just 42 balls, the second fifty coming off just 18 balls! With the score on 338-3 and 4 overs remaining, Dids were firmly staring at an opportunity of reaching 400. However, it wasn't quite to be, as Chapple Senior returned and removed Rob for an incredible 114 off 47, and Nick declared on 357-4 with two overs to spare, meaning Bowdon would have 54 overs to bat. Between them Tim, Rob and Haf scored 230 runs in boundaries as the ball flew to all parts, and Bowdon's bowling lineup wilted in the bright sunshine. Probably the most notable of the bowling figures were Rob Lord's, his extra pace meaning he travelled for 96 off 11 overs, and Glen Chapple showing his class even a decade after his retirement with 1-35 off 9.

Getting wickets wasn't going to be easy, as the pitch was still fantastic for batting and the sun was still out, albeit with intermittent showers. The seamers kept plugging away, until the double breakthrough of Liam nicking off Kesh Fonseka, and Alex doing the same to Ross Zelem. Chapple Junior then proceeded to chew it for 10 overs while the rate was at almost 9s. When he finally started to play some shots in anger, he holed out to the Horse on the boundary, and Dids' spinners had an opening. The big hitting John Sanders came and went; with 357 on the board the 1s were happy to just let him try to clear the boundaries until he made a mistake, top edging to Alex off Steve. Lord then capped off a bit of a shocker day for him by falling for a third baller, clipping to Abhay who took the catch well down low at short cover. An innings that at one point looked like it would be difficult to take all 10 wickets, was soon over, as Will ended with 3-39, Steve 2-37, and Abhay 3-1 off just 9 balls to roll through the lower order, and Bowdon were 170 all out.
It was an especially important 24 points, as Hyde, Timperley, Nantwich and Alderley Edge all won, meaning that Dids stayed on top spot by 6 points, the position they have retained since Week 1.

Sunday brought a replay of the Cheshire Cup semi-final from last year, the 1s making the trip down the A34 to Elworth. With most of our bowling lineup unavailable, in came the juniors, with Seb and Owen joining the Bidwell brothers coming into the 1s, OG having played the semi-final last year. Well and truly exorcising the ghouls of the last few weeks, Nick won the toss again. At this point umpires needn’t ask me to guess what we’re doing first, because if the answer is anything other than bat I’ll just assume they misheard the skipper. With our normally deep batting perhaps somewhat compromised, the normal (with Charlie replacing Tim) top 5 would have to execute their roles on what looked a rather green pitch. They pulled it off absolutely perfectly.

At the end of the innings, Dids had 262 on the board off 40 overs, and all five had scored between 42 and 53. Elworth’s overseas Jarrod McKay was a 6’5” quick who’s played 25 first class games for Otago and Central Districts in New Zealand. Charlie and Haf switched their normal roles, Haf flying out the gates while Charlie played more cautiously. McKay kept dropping it short and Haf kept hitting it to the boundary. After bowling a maiden first over, he then travelled for 37 off his next 3, and he was promptly taken off. Captain Alex Banks came on and helped to stem the flow of runs, but Haf was motoring. He had reached 42 off 46 when he was bowled by Banks in a completely freakish manner. Playing a forward defence, the ball ballooned up over his shoulder, then dropped onto the back on his heel and then spun onto the stumps. It was so unfortunate and ended a fantastic innings from the Crab which really set the tone for the rest of the Dids batsmen. Charlie was the next to fall, again rather unlucky to loop a top edge to short fine leg off a full toss. His 48 off 71 along with Abhay had guided us to the 25th over only 2 down. Rob came in and immediately carried on where he left off the day before, launching the ball to all parts, while Abhay knocked it around and kept the scoreboard ticking while watching the fireworks, Rob twice hitting the clubhouse windows, somewhat shocking the eventgoers inside. However, his knock came to an abrupt end at 45 off 30 when he clipped Northants Women’s player Bethan Robinson to midwicket. But that only brought the skipper in, and both him and Abhay launched full guns at the Elworth bowling. They added 39 in just 3 overs before Abhay was the third Dids batsman to fall in an unlucky manner, caught and bowled to the Kiwi, after taking him for 18 off the over. However, his 51 off 59 was a brilliant anchoring innings, guiding us to a strong position before accelerating. It also allowed Nick to join the fun, bringing up his fifty off just 24 balls before being caught on the boundary trying to hit yet another bomb. McKay ended with figures of 8-1-79-2. Ouch.

262 felt like plenty, but then the rain arrived at tea. Given the Cheshire Cup is win-lose, the DLS calculators had to come out. After an hour and a half’s delay, we were away again, only losing 7 overs in the process (contrary to league games, cup games get a whole hour’s grace before you lose overs, kindly look at it CCCL!). 234 was the new target, and the reduction in bowlers’ overs (7-7-7-6-6) actually suited Dids nicely. The two 16-year-old pace bowlers can only bowl six overs in a spell anyway, so Nick wouldn’t have to find those awkward two over spells that can so often be costly.

Jimmy Bidwell got us on the board in the 6th over, nicking off the dangerous looking Ballard. Their skipper played a fantastic knock, really keeping them within touching distance of DLS par. However, just as their scorer was saying how the previous day, he had got out immediately after getting to 50, he proceeded to do the exact same thing, Seb with the crucial wicket. Although Elworth were just keeping with the run rate, we knew we still had 7 overs from Abhay in the back pocket, and this was the cue to use them. He removed Ed Parrish LBW who had been supporting Banks. He was soon on three poles, clean bowling Ash Rogers, and then having Harry Newton caught, playing a sort of reverse pull shot to Haf at point. In the midst of all that, Seb forced the overseas into a mistake, clothing a drive to Nick at mid-off, and Dids were running riot. Elworth never recovered. It was the youngsters to finish it. Alex got himself a wicket, before OG quickly wrapped up the tail, two wickets in an over, including a stumping, before their number 10 ran himself out after hitting three boundaries. All over and Dids victorious by 71 runs on DLS and progressing to the quarter finals.

It must be commended how clinical the 1s were in what could have been a potentially tricky assignment. The top order batted perfectly, setting up an almost unassailable score, and the bowling lineup defended brilliantly. The bowling was especially impressive considering, Nick and Abhay aside, over half the overs were bowled with an average age of 17, and to go at 5s and 6s when seasoned professionals are getting carted at 9s and 10s is a real testament to their skill and hard work to get to this point.

So, a brilliant set of results for the 1s, seeing them towards the halfway point of the season and still 3 trophies to play for.