Birtwistle Cup Champions

Westhoughton hosted Farnworth Social Circle in the Birtwistle Cup Final. The game was delayed by an hour due to the rain from Saturday night/early Sunday morning. It was a great effort by all the lads to help with the cleaning up process to make sure the game could start at all, especially given the game being called off last week at the first attempt.
Having won the toss, Social elected to bat first but lost their first wicket with only 1 run on the board as Jason Dunning struck. What followed was a frustrating time for the hosts as numerous chances went down and a couple of run out chances went begging. It was beginning to look like Socials day when one batter played a shot onto the stumps only for the bails to remain firmly in place. With a slight rain break in the middle of the innings, Social were in control on 129-1 with 17 overs left, and the hosts were looking down the barrel of a 250+ total to chase. Jason then returned and in his final over finally broke the partnership worth 128 runs. After this, a few wickets fell in quick succession as Hodgy picked up a wicket and Charlie continued his form with the ball in cup finals picking up two wickets in two balls. Dan Higham then dismissed top scorer Matty Leach for 107 and Social ended up 230-6 from their 50 overs. A very competitive score that the lads knew would take some chasing.
The hosts got off to a blistering start thanks to Glenn Bullock (34) and Matt Trow (19) as the 50 partnership was brought up inside 9 overs. Both were dismissed soon after and when Hodgy fell for only 13, Social felt as though they were in the driving seat again. Charlie and skipper Runi then rebuilt the innings with a partnership of 94 that looked to have almost won the game for the home side as many of the Social players looked down and dejected. Another rain break disrupted the hosts innings, but no overs were lost with this being a cup game. Charlie then fell for 36 with the score on 172. JP joined Runi in the middle and these two experienced players looked to have everything under control. JP fell for only 8 and Jimmy fell for 0. Things were getting tense and the Social players were convinced if they could dismiss Runi it would be game over. Dan Higham went for 9 and then Runi fell for 67 with 11 runs still needed from 1.4 overs. It was left to Abbas and Chris, who by his own admissions had struggled with the gloves, to see the lads over the line. Aided by some extras and a little bit of good fortune, Chris was left with the opportunity to make up for his drops by hitting the winning runs and creating a moment that will go down in Westhoughton history wheeling away to celebrate with his on-rushing team mates. Runi was named Man of the Match and he was presented with the trophy as the celebrations began.
This was a fantastic game/day for the club as a whole and congratulations to all the lads involved in this cup run. Good luck for the rest of the season to the lads as they look to secure the double!