After Saturday’s washout and heavy overnight rain, it seemed inevitable that the last Sunday Team game would fall victim to the weather. But Allerton’s quick drying ground and their skipper’s local knowledge of the weather meant there would be play after all but only for about 3 hours or so with more rain sweeping in later.
So we agreed on a 25 over game and winning the toss on a green wicket seemed like an opportunity to bowl. With a reasonable slope on the lovely Allerton ground all Barrow’s bowlers toiled up the hill and the most economical bowled down.
Nick Heal was struggling to find his length but dismissed the first batsman when he mistimed a pull. Connor Jones, back for a belated season’s debut, clean bowled the No 3 and Adam Brace chipped in with a wicket but despite some spirited ground fielding and quite a bit of diving, the catching was disappointing. Floyd, the opener, musing at one point how many of his 9 lives had he used up. Well by the time he was dismissed for 62 the answer was at least 6! There was one exciting run out as Matt Owen unleashed a quick throw from the boundary to stop a second run, although quite wide of the stumps, but Bernie Forge collected it and dived full length to demolish the stumps. The verdict went in Barrow’s favour much to the chagrin of the batsman.
Matt Owen was saved for the final over at the bottom end and took two in two before the hat trick ball was cut for four and Guy Fisher took the last wicket to fall in the final over leaving Allerton 133-7.
In reply Bernie and Guy started promisingly making 20 odd between them before Guy was caught. By this time some drizzle was livening up the pitch and a couple of quick wickets fell before Bernie got (by umpire Steve Owen’s estimation) an almost unplayable delivery and was bowled. Matt then was dropped without scoring before embarking on an unusual scoring sequence (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,6,1,1,1,1,1) although as the outfield got damp boundaries were hard to come by unless you cleared them! Oscar top-scored with 24 not out, for once the only thing he left out was the leave, and he saw the innings out playing some “quality” shots with Matt in now steady rain. 107-7, leaving Barrow 26 runs short.