Wood Cup final: Monton on a mission
Date published: 01 August 2008
RUVIN PEIRIS . . . Heywood’s professional who has been scoring lots of runs this season.
MONTON and Weaste have the chance to clinch their first silverware since joining the Lake Garage CLL in 2005.
Trent Scott’s side take on Heywood in the John Willie Lees Wood Cup final at Werneth on Sunday (1.30pm) knowing they have a golden chance of breaking the Crimble team’s stranglehold on the trophy.
This will be Heywood’s sixth successive appearance in the final and, if they are triumphant, they will win the Wood Cup for the fifth time during that period.
One of those cup-winning campaigns came during Monton’s first season in the CLL. Heywood thrashed Monton by nine wickets in that final so revenge would be particularly sweet for the league’s new boys.
Both teams are expected to be at full strength and that could mean a high-scoring game.
Heywood, who defeated Crompton in the semi-finals, boast a powerful top four of Tom Hardman, professional Ruvin Peiris, overseas amateur Royce Blight and skipper Bobby Cross, son of former Athletic striker David.
They also have a fearsome strike bowler in Steve Cheetham, who will open the attack with all-rounder Hardman, and effective spin bowlers in Rob Slawson and Chris Kaye, who is topping the amateur averages this season.
Monton professional Brendan Nash returns to a ground he knows well, having been paid man at Werneth in 2000.
Nash has not been as prolific a runscorer as he would have liked this season, but showed with his 84 in the recent Twenty20 semi-final against Oldham that he is running into form at the right time.
The aforementioned Scott, Ghaurav Sharma, Lee Dale and Craig Duxbury have been consistent with the bat this summer and will be desperate to put Heywood under pressure on Sunday.
And if you are looking for a potential headline-grabber, what about Andy Taylor?
The fast-medium bowler collected a Wood Cup winner’s medal for Heywood before his move to Monton and would dearly love to make a telling contribution against his friends and former team-mates.
