On a close day and with thundery showers forecast Whaley lost the toss and were invited to bat on a FRESHLY prepared green wicket. Whaley not for the first time this season were soon in a spot of bother as Neils trip to church in the morning to pray for some runs had not worked and he was caught for 1. At 6 for 1 it looked like the wicket might do the damage, but how wrong we were as run machine Darren Crompton and Millie started to score freely as the pretty boys were punished for some woeful bowling, more akin to the 4th division not 1st division. When Millie was eventually out for 78 in the 30th over, he and Darren had scored at 6 an over, put on 165 runs and taken the score to 172 for 2. Darren was allegedly run out 5 overs later on 92 (I think you have to pass the stumps now before you are adjudged to be in your ground) and the last 10 overs went for a steady 7 an over with Whaley finishing on 243 for 3 off the allotted 40 overs.
With over an hour of play lost to a heavy thunder shower the Romiley innings did not start until after 6pm. Only 1.4 overs were bowled before the next heavy thunder shower drenched the ground. Whaley then did an impressive job of mopping up the ground, in order to get it fit for resumption, only to be stone walled by the Umpires. Fortunately they eventually saw sense and the game resumed at around 7.20. Fortunately the sky was a lot clearer, but time and light would be against the Whaley bowling attack. Whaley bowled superbly and none more so than the king of spin Eddie Ford, who finished his 8 overs with 4 for 20 and Dale 2 for 9 off 3.2 overs. Wickets fell regularly and for the second year running we sustained an injury as Mike Madden pulled a fetlock and had to (not be put down) limp off. It must be said that this did not happen quick enough for the impatient Cromp who could be herd shouting “get him off the pitch” Andrew Atkins who had come to spectate and also consume several beers was asked to come on as sub fielder, while Mike limped painfully round to the dressing room. He did not try to push over any trees in the process, as Heysy did last year. It was a good job Atco was in attendance as ROY CLAYTON was lurking on the boundary. The whole team fielded with zest and vigour and, Millie did a great job behind the sticks. I think Cromp has been out with Eddie too much lately. He even managed an Eddie moment as he threw the ball into the ground after dropping a catch. Next time he might beat the floor with his fists!!!
As Romiley, who were worthy winners of the second division last year, stared defeat in the face they also proved why they were last years outright winners of the parc kaeps trophy, when they proclaimed that one of our players is too ugly to play in the first division and apparently it said in the score book that he was also a @@@@@@. Having read the score book several times the only thing I can see is that at 8.50pm Whaley won by 102 runs, as Romiley were rolled over for 141. Well done you ugly bunch.

Whaley travelled over the hills again to the rim of the Glossop Basin for their encounter with Charlesworth. Even though we are nearly half way through the season this is the first home game for Charlesworth due to the rebuilding of the Pavilion and returfing of the ground. Apologies were made for the length of grass in the outfield, which could not be cut too low yet as it has only just been laid at a cost of £25,000 from Holland. (it did resemble a paddy field it was that wet and long) The pavilion looks very well and in time the ground will dry out and bed in and will be a credit to Charlesworth. Any way back to the game. Charlesworth batted first and made a yawningly slow start, I think the outfield had grown half an inch before the No2 Bat had gone through his boring ritual before each ball had been bowled, A brush attachment on the toe of his bat might not go a miss. In the 9th over Carl made the first breakthrough removing said opener for 10. By the 20 over mark the score had raced on to 39 when the second wicket fell caught by Millie of the bowling of Charlie. Whaley continued to bowl tightly and accurately and runs were very hard to come by, Charlie taking 1 for 12 of his first 11 overs. Charlesworth lost the last 7 wickets for 20 runs with Eddie finishing with 3 for 21 of 10 overs, Charlie 2 for 40 of 17 overs and Steve 4 for 2 of 2.1 overs, leaving Charlesworth staring down the barrel at 90 all out.

After tea (where Charlie set a melon record of 14 slices in 1 sitting) Whaley made hard work of the small total. With Neil and Lee both out inside the first 3 overs and Whaley 2 for 2, the target of 91 for victory seemed a long way off. Whaley found runs hard to come by but a steady partnership of 40 between Cromp and Millie seemed to steady the ship and put Whaley back on track. Whaley were not finished by any stretch of the imagination and tried their hardest to make a game of it surrendering to 49 for 5. 30 more runs for the next 2 wickets should have seen Whaley home with ease. At 80 for 6 Whaley then turned the screw on their supporters nerves loosing 3 wickets for 1 run. Even Eddie Ford (promoted to No10, not Downing Street) gave a simple catch to slip. It was left to Dale and Carl to see the side home in typical Whaley Fashion.

QOTD 1: Carl asked why he left the pub quickly the week before replied “I had a table booked at a restaurant, but when we got there it was shut. Mind you the table was booked for 9pm and it was 10pm”

QOTD 2: Mille “Cromp are you a pervert”
Cromp “NO”
Steve “Well you do a very good impression of one”

QOTD3 : Steve: Neil woke me up once at 2am. He rang me when I was away in the Far East and asked where his mother was as he needed his tea cooking. I don’t know I’m in Far East. OH YES.

Quote of the day 1 : “it’s the longest day today” Darren in reply “It doesn’t matter if it is the longest day it will go dark when the sun goes down!!!!!!”

Quote of the day 2: (Annon) the score is currently 87 for 9 and Eddie Ford has just gone into bat. “I do want us to get more runs, but wouldn’t it be funny if Eddie was out for 0”

Quote of the Day: Dead Ball !!!!!!!

Whaley 1st X1 travelled to High Lane and were greeted by a bouncy track, well that was if you didn’t avoid one of the 76 pot holes on the way down the track to the ground. The Track on the ground was its usual hard pale batters paradise (sorry must have banged my head on the way to the ground) wet, green, slow, low Bowlers paradise or is it an oasis in the desert, the only thing missing is the camels.
Whaley were fortunate enough to lose the toss and surprisingly were asked to rack up a huge score and bat first. Having carelessly lost 99 runs mid week to Mellorgate, it was important that Darren got off to a good start. Unfortunately the umpire had not read the same script, so when smoke obscured his vision of the wicket he duly gave Darren out LBW at the first opportunity, for 0, and Whaley were in some trouble at 3 for 1. Lee followed soon after with the score on 16. Neil had now got the measure of the wicket and managed to strike a few fours. He had been joined by, inform batsmen millie, and pushed the score onto 53 before Neil fell to what can only be described as a High Lane delivery, because it is the only ground in the league where this can happen (regularly). This is the delivery for those of you who have not witnessed it, that pitches half way down the track and then bounces precisely 2 inches off the ground. The result is a Batsmen that looks a fool playing back to a ball that should be going over the stumps, but instead bowls him or traps him LBW. The only remedy is to play every ball off the front foot NO MATTER WHERE IT PITCHES. Anyway where were we, Oh yes, Millie went on to score 56 front foot runs not out and the rest of the middle order chipped in with a handful of runs each and HLD’s and the Whaley innings closed on 162 for 8.

In reply High Lane were very soon in big trouble as Collin and Charlie removed the top order. High Lane were 4 for 3 after 6 overs and an early finish looked on the cards. The Number 6 Batsmen had other ideas and was the pick of the High Lane line up top scoring with 61 Not Out. With only 2 other batters making double figures it is no surprise tha High Lane were 120 All Out. Eddie did try and make a game of it by conceding 12 runs off his first over. He did manage to mop up the tail and finished with 5.3 overs 3 for 33.
Charlie finished with 14 overs 6 maidens 3 for 20, Collin 7 overs 2 maidens 2 for 16 and Steve 12 overs 1 maiden 2 for 39.
With Hadfield’s loss to Buxton, Whaley move back to the top of the league.

Quote of the Day: Steve talking to Crompy: “I’ve known you since you were a little boy, and you were a pain in the esra then”

After a heated discussion with Neil’s intention of batting first being heavily criticised by Darren, we lost the toss and were invited to take first knock on a damp wicket. It soon became apparent why Neil is captain and Darren is not as the wicket offered little to the bowlers and our two argumentative openers added 120 for the first wicket in quick time with Neil scoring 58 and Darren 64. Neil was first to go and was quickly followed by Lee who contrived to convert a slow half volley into a wicket taking yorker. Next to the wicket was Milly who scored an entertaining 50 and held together the remainder of the innings and aided by a quick 20 not out by Tommo Whaley amassed a total of 259-8.
The youthful opening bowling attack of Colin and Steve made life difficult for the Buggy openers, who in turn were unwilling to take any chances despite the large target, the result being an uneventful first 10 overs yielding a score of 19-0, hardly ideal chasing 260 to win, the scoring rate increased slowly until with 65 on the board Neil made the first breakthrough bowling Leatherbarrow for 36, Neil also dismissed the other opener Furness helped by an easy catch by Darren. This bought the ex Whaley star Josh Ratcliffe to the wicket, and he played some attractive, if not text book shots before attempting one too many and was well caught on the long on boundary by Eddie, again of Neil, at this point the score was 140-4 with Eddie having chipped in by having the No 3 caught behind of a top edge. The stage was now set for Eddie to steal the show and he did so in fine fashion finishing with 6-34 helped for once by some good catching by Steve, Dale and Colin in the outfield. Buxworth finished on 184 all out giving Whaley maximum points for the second week running and leaving captain Neil with yet another dilemma – what number will Charlie bat on his return next week ?

On a bright but very windy day, a quick inspection of the wicket left no doubt that we should bat first and when Neil lost the toss we all feared the worst, however the Mottram captain obviously thought he knew something we didn’t and invited Whaley to bat first. A steady start saw us progress to 35-0 before Neil was caught behind for 23, quickly followed by Darren for 11, Stuart was then given out LBW to a ball pitching way outside the leg stump and to which no shot was played, the umpire admitting later that he thought that meant you could be out !!! – this somewhat dubious decision left Steve coming in to join Lee with the score on 41-3 and everyone wandering if Mottram’s decision to bowl was maybe not so incredible after all, but fear not, as Steve and Lee set about the home bowling attack adding 104 for the 4th wicket before Lee was out for an accomplished 35 to be replaced by brother Dale. The score then moved on to 185 before Steve was LBW for 85, next in was Alistair with instructions from captain Neil to ‘give it some welly’, never one to ignore an instruction Alistair helped Dale add quick runs before the two fell in quick succession with the score in the 240’s Tommo, Eddie & Heysy managed 2 or 3 runs between them off the last couple of overs and the innings finished on 252-9.
The game was over as a contest after 12 overs of the Mottram innings as Steve quickly claimed the first 4 wickets aided by a sharp reflex catch by Eddie, wickets then fell steadily until at 100-8 the end was in sight, however the Mottram No6 (their best batsman by some distance) was joined by the No 10 (2nd best batsman by some distance) and the Whaley bowling attack decided that there was still time to make a game of it, the score moved very quickly to 175-8 before a superb boundary catch by Steve off Lee’s bowling broke the partnership, Neil then adopted his tried and tested wicket taking strategy of two long hops and a good length ball, result 4,6,W and the innings closed on 185. Neil 4-34 and Steve 4-39 were the main wicket takers giving us 22 points and looking forward to Buggy next week.

With the return of Captain Neil Woolley from Holiday the answer to the previous weeks question would undoubtedly be answered, but we will have to wait as Hadfield take first knock, on a nice day all be it a little cool.
With the left handed Cooke opening the batting for Hadfield the score soon raced onto 50 without loss, with some fine strikes over mid wicket for the opener. In fact this wagon wheel was rather lopsided as all the scoring shots appeared in the same place. With the score on 84 Steve Woolley defied gravity as he took off and caught Cooke one handed at Square Leg. (Eddie Ford did comment that he would have caught it with two hands. I know one thing for certain though Cromp would have dropped it even if he had eight pairs of hands.) The second wicket fell soon after, again to the bowling of Eddie and the safe hands of Steve. After 5 overs Eddie had figures 2 for 10, but unfortunately the next 2 overs went for 21 runs. None of the bowlers had a particularly good day as the batsmen were prepared to take risks and take the offence to the bowlers. Ball ended the innings on 80 Not Out although he did loose some toys on the way, as he complained to the umpires about missed wides. We await with eager anticipation the day he takes up the white coat to see if he does a better job. The innings closed on 247 for 7.
The time had come for Neil to answer the question, and he did so by leaving the top order as per the last couple of weeks and swapped Dale and Minnie. This appeared to be a good decision as Minnie top scored with 72 Not Out. The rest of the top order struggled to make an impact as wickets fell regularly without the gain of many runs. The Innings closed on 188-7.

Another warm sunny day at New Horwich Park, and faced with one of those wickets where it is sometimes best to lose the toss and let the opposition decide what to do first, Dale promptly did just that and Buggy took first knock. After a steady start by the openers, a sharp catch by Eddie in the gully off Colin’s bowling gave Whaley the breakthrough and steady bowling from Colin, Steve & Dale reduced the visitors to 69-6 after 20 odd overs, a mini recovery then ensued until a brilliant runout from T.R. Wild put Whaley back on the front foot. Captain Dale then returned to the attack and 2 quick wickets from him and Buggy were in big trouble at 100-9, however in keeping with recent form Whaley were unable to clinch the final wicket and promising Buggy youngster Joe Hall cashed in on some wayward bowling to see the visitors innings finish on 127-9 at the end of the 40 overs. Dale was the pick of the Whaley bowlers with 4-27 from his 8 overs whilst new signing Stuart Milner had a good day with 3 catches behind the stumps.

In the continuing absence of captain Neil the innings was again opened by Steve & Crompy, to face the Buggy opening attack of John Theyer & Joe Hall, Thankfully for Whaley the Buxworth fielders appear to have attended the same catching lessons as the Whaley players and instead of being 10-2 after 3 overs Whaley progressed quickly onto 65 before Darren attempted a strange pre-empted sweep at a slower ball from John Theyer and was embarrassingly bowled for 33. Steve was then joined by Lee Jones and the two of them shared a number of boundaries in easing Whaley past the target without further loss and with some 20 overs to spare, Steve finishing on 60 not out & Lee on 34 not out – prompting the question in the dressing room ‘what number will Neil bat next week ?

Quote of the day 1: 150 is a wining score on here we’ve got more than enough. (Cromp at tea.) (Mellor reached 160 in 29 overs)

Quote of the day 2: The helmet (above)