On a gloomy day Bredbury elected to field on winning the toss in what had been shortened to a 30 overs per innings game to try & beat the rain. The Vaughan-Hawkins Father/Son duo opened for Timperley and struggled against the new ball attack provided by Ridgeway & Meikle. Both nobbled the ball off the seam to invoke a few play and misses from both batsmen. Fred & Martin did keep the board ticking over, assisted by some extras and took the score to 39 before VH (sen.) was out Lbw to Meikle for 5 from a ball that did not get up.

Waqaar & Saji joined Fred but did not trouble the scorers too much and both were dismissed bowled by Meikle to leave Timperley at 66 for 3. Fisher joined Fred and looked decidedly scratchy at first before settling to task. Fred grew more confident after the opening bowlers rested and began to accelerate his scoring with some lusty blows and a lot of authentic shots through the covers. Fisher tried to keep up but couldn’t and left the junior pro to get on with it. Taking advantage of 2 lives given, Fred hit 118 and led in a 135 run partnership with Fisher that did not involve too much running.

Fisher was out for 46 Lbw to Woodall to make it 201 for 4 and Fred fell soon thereafter mistiming to mid-on. His 118 included 13 fours and 5 sixes. Harkesh (14*) & Suman (6*) picked up the cudgels and took the score to a more than useful 223 for 5 off 30 overs.

In reply Bredbury reached 55 for 1 off 15 overs. Clark bowled Meikle for 2 early on in the innings and sent the ball down at a fair lick to take 1 for 17 off 6 overs. At the other end Rayan bowled 6 overs for 19 but for no reward despite beating the bat on multiple occasions. He will no doubt bowl worse spells and take more wickets. With the rain getting heavier the covers went on at drinks for the teams never to return.

A disappointing end to a game in which Timperley had high hopes of getting over the winning line.