Interesting times in Cumbria Premier League

Ethan Hardie-Knight on his way to his 5 wicket haul

Not quite all change at the top, but an interesting development as Keswick fell to their fourth loss of the season, writes Ashley Tiffen.

A visit to Millom is always tricky, just ask Cockermouth who fell to Millom for their only defeat of the season so far in week two, and so it was to be for Keswick.

The visitors won the toss and asked Millom to bat and with the home side losing opener Joshua Mackie with only 16 on the board, it looked like a good decision.

However, Nathan Waterson who had a rare duck last week, struck 56 from 55 balls to set a solid base on which to build.

Lachlan Wilson with 20 before being LBW to Paul Hindmarch, kept up the momentum before Graham Dawson was joined by Zac Mawdsley to forge a vital 96 ball partnership for the 6th Wicket.

Mawdsley was out caught and bowled Ben Sharp for a very patient 29 before Dawson fell 4 runs later having made a sparkling 63 from 75 balls with the innings in its 49th over, with Millom ending on 212 for 8.

Glen Weightman led the bowling line for the visitors with 3 for 50 in 9 overs, aided and abetted by skipper Paul Hindmarch with a frugal 2 for 22 in 10 overs, and Meljo Jose with an even better 2 for 19 in his 10.

With batting in depth, Keswick might have been expected to challenge the target but the doubts set in early when opener Oscar Link fell 3rd ball without scoring.

Keswick rallied with Ben Sharp making 23 in 17 balls before being caught by Declan Tyson off the bowling of Paul O’Callaghan, professional Raveen Yasas making 20 from 23 balls before being caught by Callum High off Zac Mawdsley and skipper Paul Hindmarch making top score of 58 in 79 balls with over 2 hours at the crease.

Gareth White focuses on keeping Thomlinson out with wicket keeper Billy Ray hopes for an edge

But with the fall of Hindmarch, lbw Graham Dawson in the 39th over, signalled the end for the visitors as Dawson mopped up the tail by adding to this wicket with 2 more wickets in the next 3 balls leaving Keswick 64 runs short of the target but with 11 over left unbowled.

Graham Dawson’s 3 for 4 in only 10 balls eclipsed, just, Joshua Mackie’s 2 for 7 in 4 overs and Paul O’Callaghan’s 2 for 23.

Keswick will have made the journey back into the heart of the Lakes feeling they left the Millom 7 points short and, importantly, 66 balls in the locker.

Meanwhile, league leaders Furness were cementing their lead with a regulation win against Workington.

Winning the toss, the hosts chose to bat and that decision was justified with the top 3 batsmen reaching half centuries with the opening pair completing a century partnership.

Samson Storey was first to fall for 53 in almost even time bowled by David Chisnell with the score on 112 followed 12 runs later by Lewis Gribben for 59, bowled Regan Jackson.

When Gribben departed Thomas Smith was yet to open his account but that was soon sorted as he went on to reach 54 in 58 balls before being the 5th wicket to fall on 191.

Cockermouth livewire Greg Platten in the field

40 more runs were added, mainly due to 22 from 27 balls from George Smith and the 50 overs had the home side on 231 for 7.

For the visitors Grant Reid was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 48 in his 10 overs.

The Workington reply never looked like challenging their target as they lost wickets regularly to end 147 all out with only Grant Reid making it a good day for him with 51 before being caught by Dominic Hendricks off the bowling of Garry Thompson.

Josh Shaw led the bowlers with 3 for 44 with Samson Storey and Daniel Clark taking two apiece as the hosts recorded a 84 run victory.

The morning’s third place team, Cockermouth, were to keep up their challenge but were made to work hard against a gritty Wigton side languishing near the foot of the table.

For once, Cockermouth’s skipper Matthew Sempill was unable to win the toss and visiting skipper Christopher Hodgson elected to bat.

Unfortunately for them, Cockermouth’s bowlers were not in a generous mood and scoring on the well used Sandair pitch was difficult with the ball passing the bat regularly and wickets falling almost as frequently.

Billy Ray with 17 before being one of the 4 LBW decisions of the innings, and Lewis Little with 31 were the only Wigton batsmen to reach double figures as they stumbled to 131 all out in 40.2 overs.

Etha Hardie-Knight was, not for the first time this season, the leading wicket taker for the hosts recording 5 for 21 in his 10 overs. Alex Grainger and Joshua Brown added 2 apiece.

The bumper Cockermouth Show day crowd would have expected the home side to have little trouble reaching the target, but this was a day when two players made all the difference.

Cockermouth close fielders get interested as another one passes the bat

Firstly, opener Reegan Scott showed much patience and some luck as he hung around for 79 balls for his 31 runs until he fell with 97 on the board.

At the other end Alex Grainger was first to be dispatched, another LBW, one of 3 in Cockermouth’s innings, by the fired up Dean Thomlinson, followed by Gareth White with a lazy flick off this legs straight into the hands of Dan Wilson at square leg, again off Thomlinson.

Thomlinson struck again, this time removing professional Shrikant Mundhe’s leg stump for 10 with the score on 34.

It was then that skipper Sempill came to the fore with a patient 51 from 82 balls before skying a lazy shot to Thomlinson, never far from the action, off the bowling of John Reid was to leave the home side looking vulnerable.

Greg Platten, making only his 5th appearance of the season thanks to work commitments, was to strike some fine strokes including 3 fours to reach 15 and bring the home side to the brink of victory with 11 needed when he departed, yet another LBW for Thomlinson, with 4 wickets remaining.

There was still time for Thomlinson to come back and grab his 5th wicket before Tom Norman and Joshua Brown saw the home side over the line for a 3 wicket victory.

Thomlinson’s 5 for 25 was a highlight as the visitors left with 4 points to ease them 2 further ahead of Egremont.

Bottom side Egremont entertained Dalton and, winning the toss, elected to bat.

Opener Mark Ponticelli struck 23 off a steady 63 balls but he lost 2 partners, including professional Taran Marwah for a golden duck, bowled Joss Edwards, before Owen Thompson was able to steady the ship with 28 before he fell to Daniel Sharpe with the score on 70.

The home side then lost two wickets, including Ponticelli, with only 3 added and it weas only a sharp 33 by Luke Williams at number 9, that allowed Egremont to reach 160 all out in 44.5 overs.

Lahiru Dilshan took 3 for 23 and Daniel Sharpe took 3 for 35 with Joss Sharpe taking 2 for 25 to give the visitors a realistic target to make.

In that reply, opening skipper Joe Braund Smith provided the hors d’oeuvres with 22 before Dilshan was to take the visitors over the line with a season’s best 93 not out.

Egremont skipper Coady Scott was leading wicket taker with 3 for 23 as the home side could only collect 2 points.

In the final fixture, Whitehaven were at home to Cleator and batted first. After losing openers Stephen Holliday for 5 and Nathan Carmichael for 29, Terence Warde came in to smash a season high 114 before falling to a Jamie Martin catch off the bowling of Dilan Jayalath.

He partnered Josh Foster (61 not out) to take the home side to 240 for 3 in their 50 overs.

In reply, Cleator were to fall 13 runs short of a very challenging target ending their 50 overs with 228 for 9 in a high scoring encounter.

Dilan Jayalath led the way with 87 before he fell for LBW revenge to Terence Warde. David Watson (21), Tom Sharpe (24) and Steven Lee with an unbeaten 31 saw the visitors come within touching distance of the target and earn 5 points.

One talking point from this week’s fixtures was the number of leg before wicket decisions: 30% of all dismissals this week were LBW which compares with around 15% of all dismissals in first class cricket.