How often does a saturday afternoon cricket match between amateur clubs in England get so exciting - here is how it panned out today!

It was a bit of a grim Saturday afternoon today in West Yorkshire, with dark clouds threatening a washout of a cricket match between two of the best clubs in the county. And, to top it, the pitch had a bit of green on the top. With a lot of uncertainty in the air, Team Horsforth 1st XI were about to face visitors Rawdon 1st XI.

The hosts lost the toss for the umpteenth time this season and were put into bat by Rawdon. They started slowly and lost their opener to what seemed like a bit of a contentious decision from the looks of it, as the batsman was sure he hadn't gloved the ball to the keeper, but was given out on vociferous appealing by the visitors by the umpire. However, this loss did not deter them and they went on to steady the ship and made 212 losing six wickets in their alloted 50 overs. To their credit, Rawdon bowled their overs quite quickly in 2 hours and 45 minutes, extracting vicious turn with their spin bowlers, Bradley Reeve and Andrew Doidge from both ends.

Rawdon, in reply, started on a positive note and made 15 of the first 11 balls, until a mistimed pull from their captain saw them lose their first wicket. From then on, it was downhill for Rawdon, as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals to be 95 for 8. All seemed lost when Horsforth started taking it easy and the lower order Rawdon batsmen made merry putting on 51 runs for the 9th wicket and 32 for the 10th. It looked like Rawdon might be able to pull off an unlikely victory or get close; but that was not to be as a clever bowling change by bringing in Corey Barsby sealed the deal as he bowled a beauty that took the top of leg.

Scores:

Horsforth CC - 1st XI
212 for 6 (50.0 overs)
Rawdon CC - 1st XI
178 all out (43.4 overs)

See detailed scoreboard at:
http://awscl.play-cricket.com/website/results/2888118