Match Reports - 27/04/2025

Bacup’s First and Second Elevens both suffered their second defeat of the season last weekend. However, the Third Eleven started their season in style with an emphatic win. 

The First Eleven travelled to Greenmount where Ben Lord won the toss and elected to bowl first. The Greenmount professional Jacques Snyman got off to a flying start, being particularly harsh on Liam Naylor who conceded 46 runs in just four overs. However, with wickets falling at the other end, Bacup stayed in the game as Greenmount fell to 69 for 4. A fifth wicket partnership of 53 between Snyman and Nicholl took the score to 122 before the Bacup professional Khurana bowled his opposite number for 70. Four quick wickets then fell before a damaging last wicket partnership of 32 (the second highest partnership of the match) took the Greenmount score to 174 with Nicholl the last man out for a valuable 57. Lord took 5 for 52, after scoring a half century the previous weekend. Jack Bradford bowled an excellent 13 over spell, taking 2 for 34 and Khurana returned to form with the ball, taking 3 for 27 from13.4 overs in addition to taking 3 catches. 

Given a a decent pitch and a small ground Bacup were optimistic of reaching their target. Unfortunately, the batting performance didn’t match the bowling and fielding as Bacup could only muster 103 in reply, after opener Collinge was unfortunate to get the best ball of the day. After an edgy start Khurana looked in great touch, but when he went for 55, the ninth wicket to fall,when in danger of running out of partners the game was up. Dane Hargreaves was the only other player to reach double figures with 13. Dalugoda took 3 for 9 to topple Bacup’s middle order and Hunter took 3 for 35. Two bonus points were gained for bowling out the opposition, but it was a disappointing outcome. Bacup will hope to bounce back at Accrington next week. 

At Tony’s Pizza and Kebab House Lanehead Cricket Ground the Second Eleven won the toss and elected to bat first, making 177 for 5 from their 45 overs. Mohsin Iqbal continued last season’s form with 56, whilst Luke Davies (34) and John Syers (27 not out) also made good contributions. It was a decent batting performance, but the feeling was that the score was maybe a little under par given the excellent conditions. This certainly proved to be the case as Greenmount eased to victory by 7 wickets. Theo Goddard picked up two wickets and Iqbal one. 

The Third Eleven entertained the veteran Rishton Fourth Eleven who won the toss and took first use of an excellent Bacup wicket. A great all round bowling effort saw Rishton dismissed for only 143. Theo Goddard and Brady Boardman took three wickets each and there were also good spells from Patrick Hickey and Saanval Safir. 

Bacup romped to an eight wicket victory with Tom Thompson bludgeoning his way to a quick fire 67 and Adam Goddard unbeaten on 48. It was an excellent start to the season in a higher division after gaining promotion last year.