Captain Undaunted: Roger Smethurst
Skipper Roger Smethurst and the cool head of Chris Booth saw Heywood seconds home to a tense opening day victory at home to Littleborough.
The pair came together with the home side on 85-7 chasing 137 for victory.
But they played patiently, ran surprisingly well and with Booth playing strongly through the wide-open leg-side they took Heywood to the brink of victory before Smethurst fell.
This left young James Mills to hit the winning runs and secure an excellent victory that again underlined the fighting qualities abundant in Smethurst’s side.
Earlier, after losing the toss, Heywood bowled well in general to restrict Littleborough to 136.
Mills picked up a wicket in his first over, and he and veteran Rick Purser bowled tightly up front.
But the Boro innings was rocked by dangerous Simon Dawson and the left-arm spin of Mikey Grogan.
They shared seven wickets, Dawson finishing with 4-33 and Grogan 3-36, as Boro collapsed to 77-7 from 72-2, and it was only some sensible batting down the order that saw them to 136 all out.
Heywood made a shocking start in reply as they lost Matt Hood and Dawson cheaply. Ben Thulborn then held the innings together as wickets tumbled, top-scoring on the day with 31.
It was then up to Booth and Smethurst to show their class and take the seconds home.
A relieved Smethurst said: “This is a good start for us, especially with a tough away game coming up against last year’s second placed side Rochdale.
“It could be a long season for 2nd x1 supporters with both games played so far involving tense finishes.”
Boro innings
R Miskella c Grogan b Mills 1
R Rogerson b Grogan 26
G Nash run out 14
M Bood lbw Dawson 25
J Barnes c hood b Dawson 0
A Rose c & b Dawson 2
S Reeza b Grogan 6
P Jones b Dawson 0
D Tweddle st Burrill b Grogan 23
B Miskella not out 12
L Wilman b Purser 9
Extras 18
Total (all out, 46.4 overs) 136
Bowling: Purser 12.4-3-25-1; Mills 7-1-21-1; D Fawcett 3-0-17-0; Dawson 13-3-33-4; Grogan 11-1-36-3.
Heywood innings
S Dawson c R Miskella b B Miskella 4
M Hood lbw B Miskella 2
B Thulborn lbw Rogerson 32
D Fawcett run out 6
A Fawcett b B Miskella 6
M Grogan c Tweddle b Rogerson 0
C Booth not out 26
S Burrill c ? b Rogerson 11
R Smethurst c B Miskella b R Miskella 21
Mills not out 3
Extras 32
Total (8 wkts, 44.5 overs) 137
Bowling: B Miskella 15-3-38-3; Wilman 4-0-25-0; R Miskella 6.5-0-31-1; Rogerson 12-7-23-3; Jones 7-2-16-0.
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Fantastic effort guys – keep it up!