Werneth lose cup nailbiter

Photo: Pictures by CHRIS SUNDERLAND.

TAKE THAT . . . Lewis Ashton smashes a delivery past the accurate Lee Grogan.

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CRICKET:

WERNETH bowed out of the John Willie Lees Wood Cup after a pulsating duel with Heywood at Crimble yesterday.

The game hung in the balance throughout and it was only in the 50th and final over of their reply that Heywood scored the runs they needed to book a place in the second round of the Lake Garage CLL's flagship competition,

Winning the toss and taking first guard, Werneth were soon in trouble when they lost Jon Slater, Matt Taylor and Franco Lenhardt for single figures.

Professional Hasnain Abbas produced some lusty blows, including a six and two fours in one over against spinner Chris Kaye, but was inclined to take the aerial route on his way to 34.

And he took one chance too many against Lee Grogan and was caught by Dale Latham off a leading edge.

At this stage, overs were ticking by and Werneth were only 61 for four on a tricky pitch.

Overseas amateur Lewis Ashton (15) and Joe Taylor (18) made useful contributions, but the former holed out to Heywood stand-in pro Babar Naeem at cover off Grogan and Taylor was stumped by Danny Pawson while attempting to charge Kaye.

Werneth's innings looked to be heading for the buffers, but some decent late efforts from John Foxhall (14), Chris Machin (14) and skipper Andy Walker (13 not out) propelled them to 145 all out and the chance of applying pressure on Heywood.

And so it proved. The hosts recovered from the early loss of opener Simon Dawson as paid man Naeem and the dangerous Bobby Cross took the score to 49 without too many alarms.

But Naeem, who was on 36 and threatening to take the game away from Werneth, skied a Mark Dronsfield delivery to skipper Andy Walker at mid-off and, when Cross was bowled by professional Abbas and Pawson shouldered arms and was lbw against Joe Taylor, Werneth were in the ascendancy.

The match continued to sway one way and then the other, but Steven Wallwork's 26 for Heywood steadied the ship.

He was eventually lbw to Joe Taylor with the winning post in sight, but Grogan (11), overseas amateur Hamish Patterson (seven) and the experienced Kaye (five not out) saw the home team over the winning line with two wickets and five balls to spare.