The season was in full swing now, with the weather remaining lovely throughout.
Sunday 11th May 2025: Wythenshawe 53/5 (20) lost to Heaton Mersey Phoenix 137/6 (20) by 84 runs – South Manchester T20 league (Scorecard)
Another Sunday, another gloriously sunny morning (the exact opposite of the start to last season), and another strong Mersey performance. The opposition, who had recently lost to Didsbury (whom we beat comfortably), won the toss and elected to field, likely elongating the match.
Leo and Oliver M opened, our third completely different opening partnership in three matches. They got us off to a solid start, with Leo accelerating the scoring in the second over, hitting three fours in four balls (helped by some questionable boundary fielding). Oliver found his feet with a four but then, perhaps overly emboldened, he was bowled next ball. 37-0 then became 39-2 as Thomas was surprised by the tennis ball bounce from the far end, the variable bounce being a feature of the game, and could only flick it into the air for the bowler to eventually pounce.
In came Gregory, who could easily have been run out on at least one occasion as the running between the wickets turned circus-like. But, thanks to some home side fumbling in the field, he survived. Leo had underpinned the early scoring but was bowled for a run-a-ball 22, which brought Will to the crease to join Gregory.
After an early four from Gregory, there followed a difficult passage of play for Mersey as Wythenshawe rotated in some stronger bowlers, either pace or leg spin, and Will in particular did very well in fending off the threats, playing very correctly. They lasted nearly 6 overs and, whilst they did not score a hatful of runs, they put the batting side in a strong position.
Will was unlucky not to be able to capitalise on his hard-fought 8, being bowled by one that kept a bit low (his sensible backfoot play proving his undoing on this occasion). Gregory reacted by hooking a no-ball beamer for four, the ball going like a rocket to the boundary, nearly decapitating a fielder (he got his hands to it but could do nothing to slow its progress). The next over, Gregory retired on 26 (off 27 balls and his second such score in two matches), featuring just the two fours.
The visitors struggled to up the scoring against some solid bowling, with Harvey and Evan falling in the 16th over with the score on 103. A solid but unspectacular score was on the cards until Sam found his timing and smashed three fours in the last two overs, to finish on 19 off 21 balls and propelling Mersey to 137/6 from their 20 overs, a challenging target.
In response, Mersey bowled with metronomic accuracy, giving the home side nothing to hit and bowling very few extras. Gregory and Will opened with maidens, with the latter taking a wicket, a genuine nick to Sam, the keeper. After another maiden from Thomas, Harvey struck before Evan followed up with another wicket in the next over, leaving Wythenshawe on 6-3 after 6 overs.
They crept along at Test match pace, with Will taking his second (2-1 off his two overs), smartly caught by Gregory at a deepish mid-off, which put them on 20-4 in the 12th over and an astronomical required rate. Their star batsmen then hit Leo for six and Thomas for four but Harvey soon struck with an alert caught and bowled, also finishing with 2-1 off his pair of overs. The home side then saw out the rest of the overs in a sensible fashion, offering few chances, and finishing on 53-5, with no bowler going for more than 10 runs (and Evan not conceding any).
In the end, a comfortable 84-run victory to put us top of the table, but with two trickier fixtures remaining. The team was really positive and alert in the field, with very few misfields or overthrows, which was pleasing to see, whilst Sam was excellent behind the stumps against our barrage of pace.
Monday 12th May 2025: Lindow Girls U13s Originals 230 (74/11 off 16) lost to Heaton Mersey Phoenix 342 (166/6 off 16) by 112 runs – High Peak pairs league (Scorecard)
The day after the Wythenshawe game in the South Manchester Twenty20 league, Phoenix were immediately playing Lindow’s U13 girls’ team, who we played last season and who were right in the mix (although doubtless some of their U13s last year are now U14s and thus ineligible for U11s boys’ cricket (still with me?)). They finished second to Magic, and would have been top had their last match not been abandoned.
Anyway, we made sure we had a strong team for this rematch and, unfortunately, it turned out that they were relatively inexperienced, but nevertheless they gave it a good go. They also were short two players and had to borrow from their U9s, one of whom was a cracking bowler who took our last pairing (Harley and Emmet) by surprise, taking 5 (!) wickets.
Lindow won the toss and elected to field, and George immediately put them under the sword, hitting 7 fours in his innings, including 6 in one over. Leo contributed well with 14 runs, although he was out caught by Harley (subbing in the field for them). Thomas and Will also scored highly, with 15 and 17 respectively, but the opposition’s inexperienced showed most in the extras total of 55. (Given the Scorer app went down after a few overs, it’s also worth noting the (apparent) “Herculean” feat of keeping with this volume of extras using pen and paper.)
Mersey Phoenix finished on a massive 166/6, a net score of 342. The total would have been even better still but for the wickets lost by the last pair.
The opposition batted gamely in response, but all the Phoenix bowlers took a wicket, with Emmet taking two. The U9s were the last pair and they had asked to us not to bowl fast against them, which our coach forgot – until Harley bowled at full place, striking one of the boys (who was on the Cheshire training course) on the arm, giving him a welt. He ditched the run-up and bowled slower after that, although is natural arm action meant they were still reasonably nippy.
The bowlers conceded just 13 extras, most of which were byes, so an impressive performance. The result was never ultimately in doubt and the margin of victory was 112 runs, but they were a lovely team and a pleasure to host.
Thursday 15th May 2025: Heaton Mersey Magic 290 (118/7 off 16) lost to Bredbury St Marks 299 (123/6 off 16) by 9 runs – High Peak pairs league (Scorecard)
What a fantastic performance from the Heaton Mersey Magic team tonight. They played amazingly and were so close to claiming their 2nd victory of the season, but in the end they fell short by just 10 runs.
It was a high scoring and eventful match. Magic bowled first due to the late arrival of half of Bredbury’s team. The Bredbury openers were their best batters and they got their team off to a good start despite some pacey bowling from Archie. Their scoring was suppressed with wickets from Joey and Max as well as run-outs following great fielding from Harry and Joey. Finlay’s first two balls produced two wickets, clean bowled. There were chants of ‘hat-trick ball’ from the crowd, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
Tom then took a ball to the face when it bounced up high off the hard ground following a potential runout throw. He had a bloody lip, so had to sit out the last three overs. However he would bravely return to bat in his pair later in the match.
Bredbury ended on 299, a challenging total for any team.
The Magic team remained confident and there was a great team spirit on the sidelines with lots of encouragement for each batting pair.
Archie and Adam made a great start, with Archie smashing 3 fours and Adam racking up lots of singles. In the next pair, Max also hit 3 fours and Joey 2 fours to keep the score moving forward. A great partnership between Finlay and Harry took us to within striking distance of the total. Harry played some great shots and ended as top run scorer with 17, including 3 fours.
With a fat lip, the super brave Tom stepped out with Zane in the last pair. Zane smashed two sixes off their first over to take us to within 7 runs of the target. Bredbury, however, had saved some of their best bowlers for the last overs (bowling third overs). Zane and Tom kept battling on until the end and we needed a six off the last ball to win. Unfortunately it didn’t happen, but it was an amazing finish and fantastic performance from everyone. Hope Tom is ok and he recovers quickly. Can’t wait for the next match
Sunday 18th May 2025: Bowdon Vale 98/1 (20) lost to Heaton Mersey Phoenix 99/0 (10.2) by 10 wickets – South Manchester Two league (Scorecard)
The team out classed the opposition once again. I was expecting the rowdy formidable team that we faced last year that were constantly challenging the umpire so I lined up our own Sgt Major Higgins Umpire and keep them in line! However it as a totally different team that we saw today. They just couldn’t face our bowling line up and although they only conceded one wicket (bowled by Harvey) they didn’t manage to rack up the runs and mainly defended or just left most of the shots. They ended with 98/1.
We made the batting looking easy with George and Leo taking multiple 4s and George with a stunning 6, both retired, followed by Will and Gregory to finish them off. We ended 99/0 after 10.2 overs (although PC says 8.1 (edited now)!).
We just looked slick and controlled and Captain Sam was on fire with their scorer even complementing the quality of our keeper.
Great game to watch even though they made it look far too easy!
Brooklands next week - should be our toughest match yet. Either way it looks like we will be in Division 1 of the South Manchester cup playing against the big leagues!!
