Honours shared in local thriller LOCAL rivalry invariably adds a little spice to a match which, to the uninitiated, may appear to be one of the less attractive fixtures.

Over the years, Astley and Tyldesley have often come out best from these encounters even though their league position would suggest the opposite.

So today would Little Hulton enhance their place for a Lancashire Cup position or would the recently strengthened visitors pull of another victory?

Little Hulton batted first, with Finch and Hughes opening the bowling.

The pitch was playing slowly and runs were hard to come by so it came as a shock when in the fifth over Rushton (4) returned a simple catch to Finch.

Dave Parkinson now joined Paul Craig and although neither seemed in any difficulty runs were hard to score. After 16 overs the wicketless Hughes was replaced by Doyle and at 24 overs Punchard took over from Finch.

Tandem

At half way the score was 60 but only one wicket had fallen. With the two spinners working in tandem however, the game was about to change.

Firstly Craig was beaten and bowled by Doyle for a patient and, for him, a painstaking knock of 37 to be followed by Parkinson (18) who was well caught by Penchard again off Doyle.

Mark Lee was then run out attempting a second run in an attempt to force the scoring rate.

Mike Edwards, trying to force the pace faced seven balls and then danced down the track to be stumped by Clare off Doyle. Alan Gaskell, who had batted for 28 runs, did the same and was stumped by Clare again off Doyle.

Ian Lee (15) pushed the ball around for singles, punctuated with the occasional hit for four was bowled by Punchard for 15.

With four overs to go and only 120 for 7, panic set in and the last three men fell for the addition of 11 runs.

Clare claimed his third stumping of the afternoon and Doyle finished with 7 for 46 off 15.2 overs.

He owes a vote of thanks to Punchard who although only taking 1 for 26 off 12 overs bowled tightly and with such variation that it appeared easier to hit Doyle out of the ground, with fatal results.

The pitch, which had not been rolled before the game started was not rolled at the interval which rather surprised me.

Cutts and Clare opened the batting against the pace of Andy Sutherland and David Parkinson.

Apart from a sharp chance offered by Clare off Parkinson's bowling, the batsmen appeared to be in charge and it was no surprise, unless it should have been done earlier, that spin was brought at both ends in the form of the Lee brothers.

Mark was the first to strike having Cutts, who had gone into his shell a little, trapped lbw for 9.

John Punchard then joined his captain and was intent on improving the scoring rate.

Unfortunately for him, he was caught by Mullineaux of Mark Lee for 9 and at the half-way stage of the innings, the score was 52 for 2.

Young Shaun Brookes came in and played very correctly for a painstaking 16. With 10 overs to go and 54 runs wanted for victory, the batsmen were put under pressure from their own team and supporters.

Downfall

This led to the downfall of David Clare caught in the deep by Parkinson which but for a good catch, could well have been a six. He scored 46 and had had a good game.

Simon Nicklin was beaten by a ball from Ian Lee and walked for a lbw before the umpire could give it.

Brooks (16) and Bennet (8) were both caught by Parkinson off Mark Lee. With four overs left, the score was 105 for 6, only a run a ball.

Hughes hit a big six but Doyle who is not as capable with the bat as he is with the ball fell to Mark Lee, caught behind by Rushton. Cutts was bowled by Mark Lee and Paul Finch, who had revived the visitors hopes by hitting a six off the second ball of the last over and needed another six and two fours found it beyond him and fell to the last ball of the match.

Little Hulton came out of the match with a winning draw. Mark Lee finished with 7 for 34 and Ian had 2 for 45.

As in the first innings, the main wicket taken was successful because of the tight bowling from one end making it appear easier to score runs from the other and so Mark benefited.

Somehow, I don't think he will go along with that idea.

For anyone interested in statistics, Doyle took two wickets with his last two balls, so is on for his hat-trick next match and Lee, who took a wicket with his last ball, only needs two wickets with his first two balls for his hat-trick. Paul Craig batting for Little Hulton, survives an appeal by A & T's wicket-keeper David Clare.(H3733/30)