Lancashire Dev- 134/3 (18.5 overs)
J.Simpson - 67*
A.Buckley - 37
Cheshire Dev - 131/9ao (31.4 overs)
Redfern - 48
A.Buckley- 3/21 (including Hat-trick)
J.Fisher - 2/17
B.Gartside - 2/3
B.Hodge - 2/20
Last Sunday (5th July) Lancashire's D40 development team completed their league campaign with a victory over neighbours Cheshire at Longridge CC. Winning the toss following a damp morning, skipper Alex Buckley kindly invited the visitors to bat, seeing that the outfield was drying up.
The early stages were evenly matched with Alex Buckley and Jack Hughes keeping things tight from one end whilst Jack Fisher picked up 2 valuable LBWs leaving the visitors on 53/2 after 12 overs.
Regular changes of bowling stopped Cheshire getting going, Billy Hodge took his opportunity with the ball picking up his first two county wickets and the experienced Billy Gartside continued to challenge the batters, claiming two victims.
Returning for a 2nd Spell, Buckley returned to the action and quickly wrapped up the 1st Innings bowling Walton, Othick and Jacobs in consecutive deliveries to claim a hat-trick and the match ball, Cheshire reaching 131 runs.
After a delightful tea, Lancashire then had to go out to bat, things didn't start to well for the hosts as Preece departed for 7 having been bowled by Walton. Lancs could only add a further 8 runs as the visitors looked to put pressure on at 16/2.
John Simpson and Alex Buckley knuckled down and added 58 runs for the 3rd wicket to ease the pressure, with the help of Thomas Wilson, Simpson was able to continue on to reach his half century before the pair saw Lancs over the line to wrap up the victory.
The win see the Development side sitting in 2nd place in the league 7 points ahead of Warwickshire having played 2 more games. The side are likely to finish 3rd come the end of the campaign but to end with 106 points is a great achievement having struggled to get many of the squad available to play.
A huge thank you to Longridge CC for hosting our fixture and hopefully a return opportunity will be available next season, the team is currently looking for additional fixtures to end the season against any club Sunday XIs that would be available to host, please get in touch to find out our Availability.