Rothery: Workington win was deserved

In what was a dramatic final few minutes between Guiseley AFC and Workington AFC, midfielder Gavin Rothery was delighted to come away from the Bank Holiday fixture with all three points, thanks to a late Jake Lawlor header, deep into stoppage time.

The 25 year-old also believes the win was deserved.

He said: “I think overall, yeah. We had to ground it out in the end, so obviously it wasn’t pretty but the boys dug in well and we got the win in the end, and especially to what happened to us on Saturday as well, drawing in the last minute, it evened it out.”

The Lions are now three games unbeaten, since losing their first game of the season to Solihull Moors and Rothery is starting to feel the confidence is growing.

“I think a lot of the boys are starting to get in to it a bit more now, and it gives you a bit of confidence with the win in the last minute.”

The game lacked spark in the first half, but mid-way through the second period both sides went in search of that all-important winner.

“They had a couple of breakaways, and we had a few too. Danny (Ellis) had one cleared off the line with a few balls going in to the box and when Adam (Priestley) came on, he had a couple of decent efforts. We could have nicked it earlier, but the boys did well and obviously we got the result in the end and that is the main thing.”

Despite consecutive play-off heartbreaks, Rothery feels the Lions are capable of mounting a promotion push again this season.

He said: “I think we need to pick it up to be fair, get back to playing how we used to, like last season hopefully, get passing the ball again. 

"I think we are going a bit too long sometimes and it’s getting cut out. If we can pass the ball like we can do, we will murder teams but it’s just getting in to that habit again.

“If we look after ourselves, we can beat anyone in this league, we just have to do the business really and put the performances in.”

Dale backs Lions for promotion

Guiseley’s second half dominant display over Wakefield on Tuesday night overcame a first half one-nil deficit at the Rapid Solicitor’s Stadium to record a 3-1 victory over the Evo-Stick League Northern Premier – First Division North side and winger Zack Dale is confident the Lions can better last season’s heartbreak.

The midfielder came on as a second-half substitute for Wayne Brooksby and his assist to Phil Marsh who duly slotted home to wrap up the match.

Dale believes that if Guiseley can finish with the same points as last season, the Lions have a good chance of winning promotion.

He said: “We can’t do much better can we, getting 90 odd points and not going up? We can do the same and we could win the league with 90 odd points.

“Tonight, it looked like we had more fire in our belly’s, we looked more hungry for it towards the end of the game.

“I thought we done well tonight. But we had a few chances that we had, but it could have been a bigger margin tonight.”

Dale is highly rated by manager Steve Kittrick and no doubt he will be looking for a start when they face Solihull Moors at Nethermoor Park for the first game of the season.

Test Series in the Balance

The Second Test in Mumbai was a must win after their struggle in Ahmedabad, and England duly delivered thanks to the outstanding Monty Panesar.

After their mauling by India- losing the First Test by nine wickets-  along with their series defeat to South Africa in England and subsequent loss their number one Test status, Coach Andy Flower and his troops were under pressure to perform.

It was clear that the introduction of Monty Panesar was a huge lift for the England camp. On an Indian pitch that turned square and in humid conditions which favoured spin bowlers, the Three Lions again faced conditions which were evidently used wisely by MS Dhoni in the First Test. Alastair Cook had only four recognised bowlers at his disposal in Ahmedabad with James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan all being seamers alongside the one spinner in Graeme Swann. Samit Patel and Kevin Pietersen had to be used to make up for the team failing to pick Panesar-Patel bowling 31 overs with figures of 1-96 and Pietersen at 1-25 from his eight overs. It is hard to understand why they did not choose Panesar over Patel.

However, Flower and captain Cook did not make the same mistake second time round and Panesar showed why they should have picked him in the First Test. Bowling in tandem with off-spinner Swann, Panesar helped restrict the hosts to 327 all out. Monty’s 5-129 from 47 overs had given the visitors a chance, not to mention an incredible 4-70 from Swann in his 34.1 overs.

Cheteshwar Pujara showed his class yet again for the home side- the 24-year old right handed batsman hit 135 from 350 balls. It was an innings which did not just show classic stroke-making, but valuable time and patience. To be able to bat for such a long time shows incredible courage to maintain such a high standard, and pundits have witnessed a mix between Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in the number 3.

Cook, leading by example in England’s reply, continued his impressive form by scoring a century of his own along with the highly-profiled Pietersen, who silenced his critics after months of criticism pre and post the South Africa test series.

Cook and Pietersen racked up a 206 run partnership for the third wicket, a fine response to the first Test’s shambles-Pietersen must now pick up from where he left off in the third Test. England have lacked a free-flowing run-scorer in Pietersen, and his valuable runs were sorely missed.

How much of a statement did Panesar and Swann make in India’s second innings response? Together, the spin twins’ figures of 10-124 showed a remarkable effort to bowl out India for just 142. Many congratulations go to Panesar for finishing with match figures of 11-210- An 11 wicket haul is hard to collect in any type of format, especially in India, with their backs against the wall to win a Test and stay in the series Panesar can be so proud of such an achievement.

A fine ten wicket victory for the tourists was sealed by an aggressive partnership between Cook and the impressive Nick Compton to tie the series at 1-1 going in to the third Test in Kolkata.

The penultimate Test could see ‘fit-again’ Steven Finn return to replace Vice-captain Stuart Broad, who has now failed to take a single wicket in the first two Tests. Finn has been unavailable due to a thigh injury, but he pulled through a thorough net session at Eden Gardens on Monday having bowled well in a practice match in midweek. Despite Broad picking up 40 Test wickets this calendar year, he has struggled for form in India.

England cannot afford to rest easy as they look to regain their number one status from rivals South Africa as soon as possible. The South Africans made a statement of their own by demolishing Australia in Perth this week and will not be giving up top spot without a fight.

Superb Sileby hammer hapless Harborough as Second's slowly secure survival

Sileby Town claimed just their third victory of the season on Saturday winning by 7 wickets against Market Harborough 2nd XI at Mill Lane.

It was an all-round accomplished performance by the Division 2 outfit, lead by stand-in skipper Micky Ruddle for the second week running, despite the side’s heavy defeat to Loughborough Town last weekend.

Ruddle won the toss, and with a bit of cloud cover, he elected to field first, and Sileby got off to a fantastic start with seamer Fred Notman dismissing captain Chris Gordon, edging behind to Ruddle at second slip for a fifth ball duck.

Just four overs later, Notman picked up his second victim, dismissing George Bott for 5 bowling the opener with the score on 13-2.

A tidy partnership of 28 between M Collins and M Pozarskis gave the visitors a little bit of stability in the top order, but it was Adam Hackett with the breakthrough for the third wicket, with the latter having his leg stump bail removed as he departed for 12.

M Collins found himself back in the hutch just two overs later falling to Hackett for his second of the day. The young right hander looked in good form for his patient 26 before the seamer’s short and wide delivery had the number three cutting straight to Charity at second gully.

With the score now on 44-4, Harborough’s collapse seemed comparably similar to Sileby’s last week, but the boot was on the other foot, fortunately for the home side and within the space of just over an over, R Collins (0) and Clarke (2) fell to medium pacers Ruddle and Dawson respectively as Harborough were now six down for just 48 runs.

Ramdeen and Williams offered some resistance for the seventh wicket. For 43 deliveries, Williams resistance assisted Ramdeen as he was allowed to score relatively freely in a partnership of 32.

But after much pressure, Ramdeen succumbed to Ruddle as he picked out Notman at mid-off for 19.

Notman’s re-introduction was rewarded with the wicket of Williams’ who tried his best to dig his side out of the hole they were in, but the stubborn lower order batsman edged behind to Sean Dudley for his 4.

The tailend offered a lot of resistance with Kirk and Sadd both biding their time, hoping to make it to 45 overs. The left handed Kirk had played elegantly as he looked to salvage the top order damage that Notman and Hackett had caused early on.

Sadd was rewarded with two lifelines as Charity had spilled two fairly easy chances that could have put the first innings to bed, but the number ten ably supported Kirk as he crashed his way to 28 with five fours to his name.

But Kirk became Ruddle’s third wicket before off-break bowler Charity removed Moss for a golden duck with his first delivery, leaving the away side to defend just 129 in 45 overs.

Notman ended up with fine figures of 10-2-26-3, whilst Hackett’s 2-48, Ruddle 3-29 and Dawson’s 1-21 displayed a pleasing bowling performance overall.

Kindleysides and Dudley shared a fine stand of 55 for the first wicket, before Kindleysides was dismissed by Kirk for 27.

Dudley’s patient 32 from 64 balls soon came to an end when Pozarskis trapped the opener in front of the stumps leaving the score on 106-2.

Gethin King did not mess about as he made 32 from just 21 balls but he gifted Harborough a bowling point as he was caught off the bowling of R Collins, with just nine to win.

Ford and Charity eventually reached the target, inevitably, as Sileby recorded their first 24 points of the season boosting their chances of survival.

Sileby’s win means they go above Leicester Ivanhoe (151) by just three points, but leaves them 16 points clear of second bottom Quorn 138, as they now head to lowly Lutterworth  2nds (118), full of confidence.

Sileby suffer setback as Town trounce two’s

Loughborough Town 2nd XI capitalised on Hinckley Town’s shock defeat to Ibstock Town on Saturday afternoon after they defeated Sileby Town 2nd XI by 9 wickets at Park Road.

The hosts started the day in second place, five points behind promotion chasing Hinckley Town before their demolition job of Sileby Town allowed them to regain top spot with just six games left of the Everards Division 2 season.

Sileby were light on their bowlers this week, with Ryan Dawson promoted to the 1st XI.

And it was Micky Ruddle who took over the captaincy from Mo Khan, who joined Ryan Dawson in the 1st XI, and it was a day to forget.

After losing the toss, the visitors got off to a bad start, with Gethin King (0) being bowled with the first ball of the game by Kyle Saddington, to a wonderful inswinging delivery putting Sileby on the back foot almost immediately.

Saddington picked up his second wicket, dismissing Joe Charity (1) caught in the slips with the score 1-2.

Charles Kindleysides and Jack Ford had the task of recovering Sileby’s top order collapse, but the off-spin of experienced Martin Gidley had tempted Kindleysides to go over the in-field, but his drive did not have the legs to beat mid-on departing for 19.

Ford (20) followed falling to Gidley sweeping, and despite a brief partnership of 23 with Ruddle, Dan Tompkins fell to Sagar Patel for 8.

The returning Nigel Kinch shared a partnership of 59 for the sixth wicket, elevating Sileby’s weak score from 73-5 to 132-6, until Ruddle (34) was caught at long-on, looking for the maximum from Nil Patel.

Kinch (36) was stumped and Adam Hackett along with Fred Notman helped post 147 in their 45 overs.

Loughborough’s response lead by Joe Purvis and Gidley, and followed up by Saddington, took just over 27 overs to seal their victory.

Purvis took apart Sileby’s attack, crashing nine four’s and two sixes in the process for his 65 before youngster Kieron Chance took his first second team wicket with Kindleysides snapping up the opener at square leg.

But that was the only highlight of Sileby’s bowling attack. Loughborough claim 24 points, enhancing their chances of gaining promotion to Division 1 and Sileby have six games to find a winning formula to make sure they stay in Division two for another year.

Sileby set to face Rothley after demolishing Woodhouse in Semi-Final

A ruthless Sileby Town Thursday XI demolished Woodhouse Eaves by 111 runs in the Loughborough Cricket Association Premier League Semi-Final play off at King George V Playing fields.

Luke Gale, Dave Torr and Liam Kinch all smashed half-centuries as the visitors posted a colossal 185-5 from just 14 overs.

After torrential downpour in recent weeks, both sides agreed to play the semi-final at Woodhouse after Sileby Town’s Mill Lane ground had been under water for some time, despite recent scorching temperatures.

With captain Micky Ruddle winning the toss and electing the bat first, Gale had set about his intentions very early on, after crashing the first ball over the boundary for four from the bowling of Stewart.

Ben Cavey’s stay at the crease however, was short lived after he departed for the just four, falling to Cartwright with the score on 25-1 in just the second over.

Gale continued his destruction of the home side’s bowlers, and he was joined by Dave Torr, as their second wicket partnership had elevated the score to 118 in just six overs.

Prior to being bowled, Gale smashed three consecutive sixes behind the bowlers’ head before coming down the track looking for the fourth, and having his bails removed for a rapid 57 from just 29 balls.

Torr soon departed not so long after he reached his half century in just under 40 deliveries falling to A Stovell for 51.

A middle order collapse saw Gethin King and Joe Charity follow Torr back in the hutch with A Stovell bowling King for a second ball duck and Charity ran out by a direct hit for just 3.

Just three overs remained when Kinch and Mo Khan were at the crease and the final remaining overs had given Kinch the license to free hit the bowling attack, sharing a stand of 48 in just 2.3 overs.

Kinch’s 51* from just 21 deliveries had given the away side a highly competitive target for the home side to chase.

And it took just the seventh ball of the first over for seamer Matt Ellis to pick up the wicket of Simpson as he was caught behind for just a single.

Adam Hackett followed Ellis up with a wicket of his own dismissing Greaseley for five.

Woodhouse could never get going with the two seamers bowling very tight lines and A Stovell’s (4) stumps were removed by Hackett as he picked up his second wicket of the evening with the score on 17-3 in the fourth over.

Ellis also enjoyed two wickets on the night as he comprehensively bowled captain Nick Collins for three and at 21-4, it was always going to be a tough target for Woodhouse to get.

Hill and Stephens had slowly began to pick up the pieces as they made a partnership of 28 for the fifth wicket before Hackett ran out Stephens for 18.

Sam Gale’s slow left arm had invited Hill (12) to come down the track only for Joe Charity to pick up a rare stumping.

N Stovell (2) fell to Gale as he was bowled with the score on 53-7.

Ruddle picked up the final three wickets of Evans (20), Stewart (0) and Cartwright (0) all succumbing to the slow-medium pace.

Woodhouse Eaves’ unsuccessful chase has given Sileby the opportunity to face rivals Rothley Park CC in the play-off final, which is due to be played at Rothley this Thursday evening.

Sileby will go in to the final with great confidence after posting a score with such a challenge but Rothley will be another test for the league leaders, as they look to avenge their early season defeat at Mill Lane, last month.

Sileby struggle to seize opportunity as Bank’s claim winning draw.

Leicester Banks came away with a winning draw versus Sileby Town 2nd XI at Banks Road on Saturday, after the away side failed to reach their target of 157 from 56 overs.

Micky Ruddle picked up 4-25 as the visitors made a remarkable recovery dismissing the home side cheaply.

But it was Janak Valland’s 4-19 that had restricted Sileby to 130-9 as they fell 27 runs short of Bank’s total.

Former Leicester Bank’s batsman Mo Khan was appointed captain ahead of the game with Ben Cavey keeping his place in the first team, he elected to field on a fairly green and patchy deck.

Asim Khan, also a former Bank’s player, opened the bowling with Adam Hackett and they both struggled to get their lines right early on as Sandip Sologotra and Valland made a steady start, punishing any bad deliveries that was in their half.

The opening partnership was broken with Jacob Smith, as Sologotra (13) had slapped a full toss straight back at the bowler as Sileby picked up their first wicket with the score on 35-1 in the seventh over.

Rahul Sharma’s huge hitting was well supported by Valland as he continued to rotate the strike, unsettling Sileby’s bowlers.

But it was the introduction of Ruddle who was able to dismiss Valland. Wicket-keeper Sean Dudley’s quick thinking and sharp hands had caught Valland off-guard out of his crease, as he stumped the young right hander for a useful 26, with the score at 90-2 in the 15th over.

Avinesh Patel did not last long as the left-hander picked out Joe Charity at short mid-wicket for a second ball duck.

Sharma was given a lifeline in the same over when he top edged Ruddle to Jacob Smith at long off who was unable to hold on to the ball. But his destructive 66 was ended when he was trapped leg before wicket off the bowling of Ryan Dawson.

Dawson then bowled Vikash Tailor for three and the Bank’s soon found themselves at 113-5 in the 20th over. Sileby’s poor start had made a significant recovery after the loss of Sharma, losing their last 6 wickets for just 47 runs.

Asim Khan returned for his second spell and he instantly made an impact removing Prakash Patel (8) and Ashwin Patel (11) before Ruddle picked up his third dismissing Jaydeep Naik (13).

Khan’s third wicket of the afternoon was the dismissal of Vishal Somaya (1) and Ruddle closed the innings as Bharat Taylor’s loft to long off found Mo Khan as Bank’s were bowled out for 157 in just 32.2 overs, to what will have been a phenomenal batting collapse after their explosive start.

Sileby had 57 overs in total before the clouds began to open up and both sides were able to get one over in before tea.

Umpire Neil Palmer had decided two overs would be lost due to the rain and it was Gareth King and Sean Dudley’s task to ensure there would be a good start to the chase, with the visitors needing to go at only 2.8 runs per over.

Somaya picked up the wickets of Sean Dudley (11) and Charles Kindleysides (8) in the ninth and 13th over respectively with the score at 30-2. King batted patiently as he looked to assist Mo Khan but very slowly, the run rate had started to climb but there never seemed to have been any danger.

King had faced 99 balls for his 27 before Valland had his first of four wickets. Khan then become Valland’s second victim bowling the captain for 18.

At 79-4, Sileby had 22 overs to pick up another 78 runs, but they soon became five down now as Tompkins (2)  fell to the flight and guile of Valland as he went for just two.

Asim Khan looked to resurrect their innings at 93-5, but it was from the bowling of Ashwin Patel that had all members of the playing field in a puzzle when it had looked like Khan’s bails had been removed but there was a question of doubt when Umpire Palmer had failed to see what had happened.

Eventually, Khan (1) was given the finger and with the score at 94-6, Bank’s started to believe they may be able to get something from the game.

Joe Charity had been stranded at the other end as he was witnessing a typical Sileby Town collapse and all of a sudden, Charity and Ruddle had a job on their hands, with the required rate going up to six an over.

Ruddle (2) did not last long either and followed suit to the bowling of Valland for his fourth wicket of the day. Charity (25) fell to Gandhi but it was Dawson and Hackett  who had halted the home side’s charge for victory.

With an over to spare, Palmer declared the game a draw in bizarre scenes. After being put right with lengthy discussions, Palmer restarted the game and both sides were able to bowl the final over as Sileby ended up on 130-8.

Khan and Sileby will be very disappointed they were not ruthless enough to bring home 24 points and so would Bank’s after they had Sileby at eight wickets down.

Weather permitting, Sileby will welcome second placed Hinckley Town to Mill Lane on Saturday and it will be a tough test as Anshuman Bhagawati will look to keep up to the pace with leaders Loughborough Town in Division 2.