Shipley reach new Hig-tons!

Glorious sunshine greeted our arrival at the scenic Shipley Country Park location. Toss lost and we were asked to field in the heat while two 14 year old openers Owain Parkin and Francis Higton proceded to put away the bad ball to all parts. 92 on the board for the first wicket with Parkin on 30 and Francis Higton accelerating towards a superb century that any batsman would be proud of. The break through came with the miserly bowling of Joe Wright forcing a lofted steepler to cover where Tom Rawcliffe took an excellent catch while looking into the sun.
Three wickets for leading wicket taker Chris Stokes and two for Joe Wright were our bowling highlights and sharp catches from Tom Clarke at point, Joe fryer at mid wicket, Tim Stokes first ever senior catch at mid off. One of the best catches we will ever witness was taken by Chris Stokes to remove the South African oversees pro Angleo Yiatses. He came to the crease with real intent and flat batted a 100mph ball to Chris who took it cleanly - superb. The innings belonged to Higton who made a fantastic 123 and helped his team to 202 /5 at tea.

Tom Clarke had injured his finger so was replaced by Tom Rawcliffe as opening bat with Joe Fryer. Rawcs was given free license to attack and try to give our innings a quick start but was dismissed in the 3rd over by the pacey 6'4''Appleton who created venomous bounce and movement of the seam. Thornly at the opposite end was hooping the ball in to the right handers and made scoring difficult. Fryer and Brown moved the score on to 50 for the 2nd wicket before Brown fell LBW on 16 in the 18th. Fryer played well and made a solid 54 before being well caught trying to hit a six over cow corner in 27th over by the impressive Higton with the score on 87. The Shipley opening bowlers had created pressure which mean't we were always behind the run rate. Our bats offered stubborn resistance and moved our score on to 130/9 from our 40 with Tom Clarke batting at 11 with his badly bruised finger. A disapointing end of the season for us but the day belonged to Francis Higton who with 123 was the difference between these two development teams. More to be heard from this cricketer in the future.

Thanks to Mat Clarke for scoring and for everyone who made the long trip.

I will always remember Chris Stokes catch - a real worldy!

Thanks for reading.
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