Monton clinch cup in style

Monton celebrate their win with William Lees-Jones (MD JW Lees Brewery) and the Mayor of Oldham, Cllr Shoab Akhtar.

FOUR times they had won it in the previous five years, but Heywood were on the knees in yesterday’s John Willie Lees Wood Cup final when a certain Shoab Akhtar entered the fray.

Alas, with opponents Monton and Weaste on 112 for three in reply to their 132 all out, Heywood needed the Rawalpindi Express, with the slightly different first name of Shoaib - rather than the current Mayor of Oldham - to come to their rescue.

Councillor Akhtar was at the Coppice to conduct, along with presentation duties, the draw for the raffle during the final drinks break.

And Oldham’s Mayor must have been seriously impressed with the performance of Monton and Weaste, who avenged their 2005 defeat at the hands of Heywood with a throughly-convincing seven-wickets victory.

It was Monton’s first trophy since joining the league four seasons ago and one which they always threatened to deliver after putting Heywood into bat on a wicket tinged with green following sustained overnight rain.

The decisive moment of the match came with Heywood on 67 for one and going at more than four runs per over. Profesional Ruvin Peiris called overseas amateur Royce Blight for a run which wasn’t there and Lee Dale threw down the stumps.

Peiris, shaken by his error, gave opposite number Brendan Nash, the former Werneth profesional, a sharp return catch soon after and from that point Heywood were in deep trouble on a wicket of variable bounce.

The Crimble outfit were bowled out for only 132 and although Tom Hardman and John Storey struck with early wickets to reduce Monton to 18 for two, Nash (46 not out) and skipper Trent Scott (35) shared a decisive third-wicket stand of 78 to put their side in sight of victory.

Nash and overseas amateur Gaurva Sharma (22 not out) saw Monton over the line, the former earning Chronicle reporter Tony Bugby’s vote as man-of-the-match.

Captain Scott was CLL chairman Howard Dronsfield’s man-of-the-series for a string of telling performances throughout the competition.