Rowington made the long trip to league leaders Ashton-under-Hill on Saturday and promptly opted to field in cloudy conditions.

 

Opener Steve Jay struggled at first with the windy conditions but, after a couple of overs, soon started to frustrate both Cooper and Pearce. With the score on 46 off 15 overs, Pearce drove one straight back towards Jay whose nifty footwork saw him deflect the ball onto the non-striker's stumps and Cooper was walking even before Jay appealed - unlucky Cooper had made 15. Pearce then tried to hit Jay out of the ground but the wily veteran, aided by some astute field places, soon saw Pearce fall into the trap and Jay got him caught and bowled for 33. The two Haines brothers then joined forces and Jay and Rogers handed over to Dale Glover and Andy Shaw. But the Haines' took a liking to their bowling and pushed up to 123 before Rogers brought on Leon Clarke who soon made the breakthrough, bowling D Haines for 56 and doing the same to his brother for 32. Archer was quickly run out for 8 and M Patel turned singles into doubles as he marshalled the lower order, Eike Gilbert had J Patel LBW and Ashton ended up 208 - 7. M Patel 14 no.

Jay 1 - 27 off his tidy 10, Rogers back to normal with 1 - 43, Gilbert added to his impressive season tally with 1 - 40 and the in-form Leon Clarke 2 - 39.

 

In reply Rogers and Alex Smith put on 30 before Rogers couldn't resist hitting Cope for a big one and was caught on the boundary for 16. Smith played some good shots but then got bowled for 20 by M Patel. Simon Cross and Tom Jefferson moved the Rs past the ton, until Jefferson tried to pull a low one and was out LBW for 34 to the youngster Perks. Matt Page didn't last long - doing his usual charge to the spinner and getting stumped for 10. Eike Gilbert helped Cross move the score past the 150 before Cross got bowled by M Patel. Glover and Clive Haywood tried to push the pace, but both went cheaply for 7 and 3 as Glover skyed the last ball of the penultimate over to Glazier off Archer. In came Jay with 6 balls to face and 31 required, young Perks bowling. His first 3 deliveries were smashed to the boundary by Jay but his fourth got nothing and Jay's impossible task was over as only a single was gained off the 5th ball and the Rs ended 17 short of the target. Gilbert 30 no and Jay 13 no.

Archer 2 - 33, Cope 1 - 27, M Patel 2 - 40, Glazier 1 - 36 and the impressive 13 year old Perks 1 - 29 off 6.

 

Steve Jay