Lacklustre showing Marple's worst so far

N a blustery afternoon at the Michael Hibbert Cricket Ground, a lacklustre Marple were unable to back up their fine win at Sale the previous week.

- MARK BROOK

From a home point of view, there was little to cheer, as the side served up its worst performance of the season against a team in a similar position in the league.

On paper, there was little to choose between the two sides, but Urmston focused on the basics with bat and ball, whilst Marple served up a diet of freebies, with too much variation in line and length for a less than top-class batting line up.

When Marple batted, the Urmston opening attack of Matt Senior, and especially the left arm seamer Richard Dempster concentrated on a fullish length, bowling straight. Dempster, in particular, is in top form currently found late swing into the right handed batters, and his final figures of 2 for 16 certainly did not flatter him.

Jack Grundy had his fellow skipper Sam Smith lbw to the second delivery of the afternoon, but after that, inconsistency marred the home bowling. David Dempster, 45, Zain Sabir, 31 and Umar Munawar, 34, all took toll of some mixed fare.

Spinners Charlie Hodgson and Mark Makin with figures of 2 for 40 and 2 for 26 respectively, represented Marple's most effective combination, but with injuries hampering Grundy's choice of bowling, some of the part timers were harshly dealt with.

Tom Reeve returned well to pick up three late wickets, but control from the Marple seamers was generally lacking.

The highlight of the Marple innings was a fluent and stylish knock of 39 from Max Fitzgerald, who He played some glorious straight drives off Senior, but only Mike Schofield, who made 12, and added 47 for the fifth wicket with Fitzgerald was able to stay for any time.