Out of the Cup

The 1sts dropped out of the first division Readers Cup after Fleetwood's 177 proved too many. Despite one of the best batting performances of the season, with Charlie Swarbrick's maiden 1st team 50 and good contributions from the returning Luke Phillips (23), the in-form Kieran Moffat (15) and the never dull Lee Sparks (16), some loose bowling and poor fielding probably meant that we were always chasing 20 to 30 too many runs on a slow pitch and boggy outfield.

The definite highlight of the day was Charlie's 57 which came in good time. It was a mature, well paced innings with a circumspect start that branched out into an explosive second half, with a towering 6 into the car park. Following the early innings jitters, Charlie was well supported by mini moff, who's in good touch, and Luke who looked like he'd never been away from the crease in his comeback to the longer form of the game. However the loss of 5 wickets for 9 runs in search of a steep asking rate of 8 an over, meant that, despite Sparky's swooshing blade and excellent reverse sweep, we fell a good 30 short.

Earlier in the day we got off to an excellent start once again as Liam Moffat continued his good rhythm from the day before to snick off Fleetwood's dangerous paid amateur Adam Parker to the safe hands of a diving Luke Phillips at 2nd slip. Ben bowled with good control as usual picking up two, however Naved Yousef's 61, Liebisch's (pro) 38 and Sharrocks 46 were aided by arguably too many four balls and, again, poor catching. However, it was by no means a hammering, not forgetting that this Fleetwood side isn't second in the league for no reason; so, disappointing to go out but onwards and upwards for Preston away on Saturday.