Brooklands v Widnes First XI

WIDNES fought hard against Brooklands but did not quite do enough to gain their elusive first win of the season.

The target of 199 proved to be too difficult against an accurate bowling attack.

A wet outfield had prevented play starting until 2pm with 20 overs lost as a result.

Brooklands got off to a brilliant start with Lee Marland being particularly ruthless against the loose ball.

He raced to 56 from just 70 balls before a vicious bouncer from Brent Lodding produced a false shot which was comfortably held by Sean Higgins.

Brooklands slipped from 63-0 to 93-4 as they struggled to cope against Lodding and Ali who had picked up the other three wickets.

A stand of 90 between Edwards and King seemed to be taking the game out of Widnes' reach but a late order collapse against Ali's thoughtful spin-bowling and Hurdley's accurate seamers saw them fall away to 198 for eight, Ibi Ali was Widnes' biggest threat and he fully deserved his haul of 5-53.

The Widnes openers Phil Catterall and Brent Lodding again got Widnes away to a solid start but Lodding was caught at mid-wicket just as he had started to accelerate the scoring.

The dismissal of Catterall with the total on 72 had a big effect on the scoring rate and the game seemed to be petering out tamely.

Tony Hurdley and Alan Hitchmough briefly threatened a serious attempt in the closing overs.

Tony Hurdley showed a return to form with a series of classy strokes after a nervous start, but when Hitchmough was caught at long-on the run chase was called off.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.