Embsay 1st XI
The 1st XI’s hopes of defeating league leaders Harrogate 3rds soon vanished into the ether. Winning the toss and electing to bat both openers were back in the hutch with ducks, and we were 5 for 2. Despite 24 from Mo Saghir and 23 from Haroon Ali nobody really got to grips with their bowlers. Number 3 batter, Ben Keane spent 75 balls holding up one end, making 27 not out. The innings closed on 115 after 29 overs.
Could we be having a week like last week, when defending 110 we had our opponents 99 for 8 before going down. They lost both openers to Struan Mackenzie for first ball ducks – 2 for 2. Unfortunately, it really wasn’t going to happen as they only lost two mor wickets reaching their target in 17.4 overs. Struan too 2 for 30 and there was a wicket each for Hammaad Hussain and Mo.
We drop from seventh to eighth in the table.
Embsay 2nd XI
The 2nd XI entertained Middleham at the Billy Bob Ice Cream Parlour sponsored ground. They won the toss and asked us to go first. Gareth Wooler and Sam Keane enjoyed themselves and the score had reached 123 in the 23rd over where Gareth went for 56. Sam was bowled for 66 (11×4) 3 overs later – 145-2.
From there, scoring looked to become difficult as we only managed another 47 runs for the loss of six wickets. The innings closed on 192 for 8, with young Ben Jolly having the next highest score of 17.
Middleham lost a wicket to the third ball on the innings. Their other opener and the number three batter took the score to 85. There were three superb catches which helped us to turn the screw. Their opener pulled the ball to the square leg boundary, Scott Gee was hurtling around the boundary, he stuck his right hand out and the ball stuck, much to everybody’s amazement. The other two catches came as they slumped to 125 for 9 (only ten men). Firstly thirteen-year-old Hayden Barrett made catching look easy as he held on to a steepler much to the joy of his teammates. The third catch was taken by Scott Robinson, off his own bowling. On his follow through he had to dive to his right and cling on to a chance. He was horizontal when he claimed the catch. They had lost seven wickets for 24 runs. Sam rounded off a terrific match by taking 6 for 19 off 28 balls and Scott finished with 2 for 29.
This week the first team travel to Newton-le-Willows, whilst the second team entertain league leaders Crakehall 2nd who are 17 points in front of us.
The match ball sponsors are Ellison Construction Ltd and Andrew Ayrton.
Trevor Coe – ECC Chairman
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