1st XI beat Congleton

Match Report from Nathan Brown[

Timperley back to winning ways with a strong win against Congleton

After defeat to Cheadle last week, the 1s are now extremely unlikely to go up into the Premier Division - while disappointing the season has had far more positives than negatives and we took some time before warming up to reflect on them. It does feel like the team has grown and settled and confidence is still very high.

What is important now is the team carries some momentum and confidence into the start of next year where our slow start this year ultimately cost us so there was still plenty to play for with 5th placed Congleton not going to be pushovers.

Timperley bowled first and Congleton's captain Jack Goode opened up with Congleton missing a few players - he raced out of the blocks playing some powerful shots that got Congleton off to a good start on a flat wicket. Aadam's fine opening spells was rewarded in the 14th over with his wicket just before 50 which proved to be the key wicket for us.

After that the runs started to slow and wickets were collected at one end by Jono and then Chris while Nathan toiled away at the other end. Congleton's number 4 Ben Heades playing a good hand along the way and also falling just shy of 50.

After a brief spell from Ed and the end of Nathan's efforts, the skipper went back to his 2 quicks to try and blow away the tail and they did so with great success and Jono's skill and accuracy meant he came away with the excellent figures of 6-60 as Congleton were bowled out for 191.

Timperley's batting efforts started off with a few early wickets thanks to some accurate bowling building some pressure as Viraj, Johan and then Jamie fell to leave the score 39-3. We always felt that 191 wouldn't be enough on such a good wicket though and Ed shared partnerships with Jono Fletcher (30), Aaryan (40) and Absy (14*) to steer us home comfortably in the 41st over to win by 5 wickets. Ed's classy and controlled 78* came off 81 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes.

We now look forward to a tough test away at Grappenhall next week where we would like to put down a marker for next year and show our belief that we can go a step further next year and be promoted like Grappenhall will be this year.