A clean sweep saw Hindley St. Peter’s take three wins from three matches across the weekend.

On Saturday the 1st XI were away at Winton and were put in to bat after losing the toss. After a tentative start in the first few overs, Ishtiyaq Shaikh and Ashutosh Pandey got into their stride and put on 66 for the second wicket in 17 overs before Shaikh was caught for 39. Another partnership of 48 between Pandey and Umar Shaikh continued to build a platform for HSP but both were then dismissed in the space of three balls, Shaikh bowled for 18 and then Pandey given LBW for 40. At 114-4 after 30 overs HSP now found themselves with a bit of work to do to rebuild the innings, and another wicket a couple of overs later left the innings in danger of fading away. Shoaib Khan came to the rescue with a counterattacking knock that helped to bring some impetus back to HSP and, although the remaining wickets fell at fairly regular intervals at the other end, Shoaib was able to get his side up to a final score of 198 before he was the last man out for 42 from just 33 balls.

HSP picked up an early Winton wicket although the home side were then able to consolidate with a second wicket partnership of 33. HSP then began to pick up wickets again through Mark Wood and Ian Chesworth as the required run rate began to get away from Winton. James Hart came into the attack and took 3-11 from six overs as HSP took firm control. With Winton at 112-9 HSP were on the brink of victory but the home side weren’t ready to go down without a fight as the no. 10 Daniel Holden started to hit back. Winton were never seriously in contention for the win but they got close enough to deny HSP a bonus point, putting on 43 for the tenth wicket before Holden was finally out for 39 to the returning Mark Wood, Winton finishing on 155 to give HSP the victory by 43 runs. Wood finished with 4-22 from 12.4 overs.

Back at Hindley the 2nd XI held on in a tight finish to sneak home by just seven runs against South West Manchester. Batting first, Noman Khalid and Sabhat Zahid once again got HSP off to a flying start as they put on 52 in the first seven overs. Sabhat was out for 24 but then a mini collapse saw HSP stumble to 67-4. Noman and Fahim Ashraf took the score to 91 before Noman was out one run short of his half century. Another wicket left HSP at 101-6 although the breakneck pace of the batting was such that only 15 overs had been bowled. This gave Fahim and Behzad Malik plenty time to build a partnership that brought HSP back into the game. They put on exactly 100 for the seventh wicket, Fahim top scoring with 72 from 69 balls. His dismissal brought about another flurry of wickets though as HSP lost three for seven runs in a couple of overs, bringing last man Mark Hardman to the crease with the score 208-9. Malik and Hardman then put together what proved to be the crucial partnership of the game, adding 21 for the last wicket to take the final score to 229 all out. Malik made 39 while Hardman was unbeaten on 15.

HSP seemed to have the upper hand in the second innings as they reduced South West to 45-4, but a century partnership for the fifth wicket between swung things the other way. By the time the stand was broken by Muhammad Umar Khan – the first of three wickets for him – the visitors needed 85 from 14 overs. With the pace the game was being played at this was by no means out of the question, Ali Ikram for South West keeping his side in the running as HSP tried to keep the runs down. When Ikram was bowled for 62, his side’s top scorer, the total was 188-7 and 42 were needed from the last five overs. The lower order for South West gave it all they had but HSP were just about able to hang on as the visitors didn’t quite make it across the line, finishing on 222-7.

On Sunday the 1st XI travelled to Denton in the quarter final of the John Barrow Trophy, the two sides having met just once before, in a Lancashire Cup tie way back in 1996. In sunny conditions but with storms forecast, stand-in skipper Ian Chesworth called correctly at the toss and opted to bat first. HSP got off to a bit of a shaky start, losing a couple of early wickets, but Paul Delargy and Shoaib Khan started to take the attack to the home side’s bowlers. Shoaib continued where he had left off the previous day, making 29 from 22 balls before he was third out to leave the score 57-3 just before the end of the ten powerplay overs. Denton are a division higher than HSP in the GMCL but it didn’t show as Delargy continued in partnership with Yusuf Ellahi to add 60 in the next ten overs. Delargy passed his half century before falling to a sharply-taken catch for 57. Ellahi played an excellent supporting role on his way to 22, and the scoring rate was good, but as wickets began to fall and with plenty overs left HSP looked as though they might have missed a trick and lost out on a potentially large total. They found themselves 167-9 still with 15 overs to go, but a very handy tenth-wicket partnership of 23 between John Wilkinson (24*) and Lukman Tailor got HSP up to 190 all out, although they did leave 11 overs on the table.

The storm clouds were brewing as the players left the field, and before too long the rain arrived and quickly became heavy. So much rain fell that it soon became clear that there was no prospect of the game resuming and, with a result needing to be achieved on the day, ultimately it came down to a bowl-out. Denton won the toss to go first but both sides found it difficult to hit the target. Denton went ahead with their eighth attempt (out of ten), Ishtiyaq Shaikh levelling up for HSP straight away. After each side had had ten attempts the score was locked at 1-1 and the bowl-out went to sudden death. Four more players went from each side and all of them missed, with only two players each still left to bowl. Denton missed again before Yusuf Ellahi stepped up and hit the stumps to win the contest for HSP, who now go through to the semi final stage.

Next Saturday the 1st XI are at home to Horwich RMI, while the seconds travel to Stretford.