Walkden land an historic treble

10:23pm Sunday 14th September 2008

Walkden’s cricketers put the seal on a glorious summer when they defeated Farnworth Social Circle by 51 runs in the LCB Knockout Trophy final at St Anne’s.

The thoroughly deserved victory means that Mike Bennison’s side are the first to win the Lancashire Cup, the Bolton League and the Hamer Cup in the same season.

Yesterday’s victory at the beautifully-appointed Vernon Road ground was founded on an opening partnership of 139 in 27 overs between Bennison and the Walkden professional Praveen Gupta.

Having given their side this most solid of foundations, both batsmen were dismissed inside two overs, Bennison for an 84-ball 63 and Gupta for an 82-ball 71 which included six fours and three maximums.

For the next ten overs the innings lost its momentum until a cleanly-struck 47 off 27 deliveries by man-of-the-match David Smith enabled the Harriet Street outfit to reach a formidable total of 244-6 in their 45 overs.

The pick of a Social attack, which never let its head go down, was skipper Matthew Parkinson (1-27), who bowled his off-spinners with admirable control when defending the short boundary, but both Adnan Ghaus and Chris Barrow suffered when Smith launched his crucial late assault.

Walkden’s total was regarded by Northern League locals as no more than par on the true if slowing wicket.

However, Social’s response got off to a poor start when Jonathan Fearick bowled Shantha Kalavatigoda for three in the second over and the same bowler then had Michael Ashworth caught by Sam Reidy at deep square leg for 11.

Trapped between the need to keep wickets in hand and the requirement to score at a rate of six-an-over, the later Social batsmen lost their way against some unremittingly accurate Walkden bowling.

Smith’s first five overs cost five runs, and when top scorer Tim Barrow was bowled by the medium-pacer for a 70-ball 40, his team’s cause was already all but lost.

Some late hitting lent respectability to the margin of victory but never for a moment disguised the superiority of Bennison’s team.

“I told our players in April that if we played well, we’d got chances this season,” said the Walkden skipper.

“We particularly targeted this competition and what’s made the difference is that we’ve now got six or seven players winning games instead of two or three.”

Our Top Stories