Franklin is happy with his players
4:17pm Wednesday 1st October 2008
RADCLIFFE cricket secretary Chris Franklin believes one bad weekend in July cost his team a shot at Central Lancashire League glory.
The Racecourse side led the way at the top of the table for much of the season, but back-to-back defeats to Norden and struggling Ashton put paid to any hopes of silverware.
Radcliffe finished seventh, 15 points behind eventual champions Heywood, but Franklin says his young team can take plenty of heart from their summer’s work.
“One bad weekend cost us,” said Franklin, pictured. “Once we got beat twice, we were behind the eight ball and then we suffered from rained off matches.
“We had both Rochdale (at home) and Walsden (away) on the rack and the rains came and we had to share the spoils instead of taking all the points.
“If we had won our last game of the season we would have finished in the top five and landed a place in the Lancashire KO.
“There was plenty of improvement again and the young lads did well. One of my highlights was when young Sean Gibson scored 12 off the last over to win the match for us against Royton.
“The pro (Usman Tariq) did very well again for us, scoring nearly 1,400 runs, and I am pleased he will be here with us next season to help us move forward even more.”
The future does seem bright for Radcliffe, with the youthful third team winning a league and cup double to serve notice of their potential.
“The thirds did really well and we are looking for some of those players to progress into the seconds next summer,” said Franklin. “The same applies for some of the second team lads looking to break into the first team.
“We will strengthen with a few new faces next season, but we want to develop our own players too. We want a team full of Radcliffe lads.”
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