The First XI is sponsored by Paul Concannon – Plumbing and Heating, of Forton. Many thanks for his support.

 On another beautiful late spring day Shireshead 1^st XI took on Bare at Cross Hills Park and won. Picking up from where last year’s Captain, Dave Jack, left 1^st XI skipper Ste Yates lost his second successive toss and Shireshead were invited to bat.  

Shireshead made a decent start with both Tom Jacques (55) and Joe Cunliffe (11) contributing before Cunliffe fell to the clever swing bowling of Archit Bhardwaj (2-28). Soon after Cunliffe went Bhardwaj had his second of the day in similar fashion, as Robert Skipworth failed to trouble the scorers and was out LBW. This flurry of wickets left the visitors on 29-2 and saw the introduction of Jake Agar. Agar has made a promising start to his 1^st XI career and added another impressive 48 from 68 balls. His partnership with the ever reliable Jacques took the score to 74-3 before Jacques fell tamely and was caught at square leg. With a solid base on which to accelerate, Shireshead built a satisfactory innings and were eventually bowled out for 175 with one ball remaining. What remained to be seen was whether Bare would attempt to chase down the total or endeavour to keep out the Shireshead bowlers in a similar fashion to Carnforth the week before.  

Shireshead started the 2^nd innings brightly taking the early wicket of Frank Smith for 3 from the bowling of the timeless Phil Oliver. His figures of 1-13 from 7 overs showcased his perpetual ability to come up with the goods year after year. From there Bare batted circumspectly but continued to progress the score easily with Andrew Butler (31) and Robert White (39) being the pick of the batsmen. The introduction Joe Oliver had looked to turn the game for the visitors. Oliver jnr who was disappointed with his bowling performance the week before took three wickets in four balls in an explosive spell to leave the hosts reeling on 63-4. The home team then composed themselves to reach 90-4. At this point they needed less than a run a ball with six wickets in hand. A captaincy masterstroke brought Tom Jacques into the attack and he took 6-28 with the last six wickets falling for just 17 runs. Bare ended the innings on 116 in the penultimate over. Credit must go to both teams for a great game of cricket. Shireshead were kindly sponsored by Paul Concannon.  

 

Shireshead vs. Grimsargh 

In the first round of the national village knockout Shireshead travelled to the Royal Borough of Grimsargh at the gateway to the Ribble Valley.  Grimsargh cricket club is situated on the picturesque village green set amongst the Lancashire countryside.  

Shireshead captain, Ste Yates, again lost the toss and the away team were given the task of bowling first. The Grimsargh innings started in remarkable fashion with the opening batsmen, Imran Bux, trying to hit his first three of balls into neighboring Longridge. The third attempt brought about his demise as he was clean bowled by Jake Agar (1-31). At the other end Dave Jack toiled away brilliantly until his effort was finally rewarded with his first wicket of the season. He finished with remarkable figures of 3 wickets for 6 runs from 7 overs. Tom Jacques replaced Agar at the other end and continued his incredible form from the day before taking 5 wickets for just 1 run from 1.5 overs. The Grimsargh innings ended rather tamely on just 39 from 13.5 overs. 

On what was a decent batting surface Shireshead made slightly heavier work of the total than was necessary losing three needless wickets before Dave Jack finished the game with his usual imperious bottom hand. After Lindal Moor CC made light work of Burneside CC Shireshead will be travelling to the Cumbrian village for their next round in the village knockout.