Report by Tom Jacques

FIRST TEAM MATCH SPONSOR – PAUL CONCANNON: LOCAL HEATING AND PLUMBING

The opening match of the much anticipated and much needed 2021 cricket season started with an exciting game between two similarly talented sides, on a sunny afternoon at Heysham Cricket Club.

A frosty morning gave way to a beautiful afternoon that was, unfortunately due to Covid, not able to be appreciated by the supporters from either club.

Heysham won the toss and inserted Shireshead, where they got off to the perfect start with a boundary from the first ball. The next few overs didn’t go quite to plan as both Joe Cunliffe and Thomas Jacques were removed which left Shireshead on 20-2.

From there Shireshead progressed well scoring freely with particular note going to first team debutant Jake Agar who scored an aesthetically pleasing 29 before finally being bowled by Aaron Cross. The brilliant Jack Dodd became the pick of the batting with 49 from 35 balls. His partnership with Dave Jack who scored 41 from 41 balls enabled Shireshead to reach a total of 212.

Some questionable decision making from the batting side lead to two late runouts which caused the premature end of the innings, giving Heysham an extra over to bat.

Shireshead started the second innings pleased with their total but also well aware that on a ground such as Heysham’s it is an achievable target for the team batting second. Shireshead took an early wicket with the opening batsman L. Calverley being removed for a duck by some archetypal swing bowling from Josh Smethurst.  This brought to the crease Jamie Antcliffe whose 89 from 113 balls set the platform from which Heysham would ultimately go on to win the game.

Antcliffe was ably supported by a number of batsmen, the best of which was Sam Calverley 25 from 17 balls). Calverley’s left-handed languid style of batting finally took the game away from Shireshead with a few overs to spare.