Mark bowled over by his own success

GOTCHA . . . another wicket falls to Mark Dronsfield, who has claimed 42 victims this season.

CRICKET: MARK Dronsfield is having the time of his life at Werneth.

A Coppice cricketer since - in his own words - he was “knee-high to a grasshopper,” Mark has shot to pieces his previous-best bowling performance in the Lake Garage CLL.
That came two seasons ago when he took 24 wickets, but already this term the canny medium pacer has sent 42 batsmen back to the pavilion.

And his victims have come along at a cost of just over 11 runs apiece, a superb return for an amateur bowler and one which has propelled him to the top of the league averages.

Mark’s latest contribution for Werneth was his four for 29 in the team’s easy victory over Crompton on Saturday.

Modestly, the 29-year-old says he would be happy to reach 50 for the season, but with 14 matches remaining, a much loftier total beckons.

So what has brought about such a transformation for a bowler who had previously craved for a season’s haul of 30 wickets?

“I am just bowling a lot more overs than in the past,” said Dronsfield.

“Previously at Werneth, we had top bowlers like Stuart Moore and Shaddy (Darren Shadford) and I didn’t get to bowl that much.

“But now I am bowling a lot of overs in tandem with Alan Durose and we are getting plenty of wickets.

“I also owe a lot to our wicket-keeper Chris Erasmus, who has been standing up and has taken some great stumpings to balls which might have been called wide.

“And the majority of my wickets have been catches, with my team-mates taking some blinders.”

Dronsfield also paid tribute to Werneth’s middle order batsmen, who have been helping themselves to telling scores during a successful spell for the team in recent weeks.

“If the lads at the top have failed, then the likes of Jon Slater and Joe and Matt Taylor have been getting scores and helping us to decent totals,” he said.

“That has given us something to protect and we have been managing to bowl sides out.”



LUKE Procter’s recent innings of 198 not out against Crompton broke a 69-year-old Royton CC record.

The professional's whirlwind knock beat Walter Cornock's 197 achieved against Ashton on May 10, 1941.

And Procter shared in a club-record third-wicket stand of 237 with 17-year-old Liam Brown, who scored 79.

The partnership eclipsed the previous-best of 194 against Stand in 2002 between Iqbal Siddique (108 not out) and Warren Teal (118).

Yet another club record tumbled when the second X1 amassed a staggering 403 for six against their Crompton counterparts, John Punchard (132) and Barry Woodward (140) putting on 189 for the second wicket.

If the latter partnership was a smasher for the veterans, then the Royton youngsters had their day in the sun during a recent third-team match against Unsworth.

Yet another club record was shattered as 18-year-old Liam Mason (83) and 15-year-old Connor Hey (68 not out) shared an opening stand of 154 before rain brought a premature end to the match.

Another Royton teenager making a splash is 17-year-old Richard Pertoldi, who smashed 44 off 18 balls and took six for 28 in a recent match against Walsden.