It has been a rather unsatisfactory start to the season. Rain disrupted most games on the first match-day of the league programme and then ruined all but three of Saturday’s fixtures.
These, though, are precisely the situations in which victories can be particularly valuable, so there may well be a few happy faces in both the Maghull and Burscough pavilions this week after their flagship sides became the only first teams in the Med Imaging Liverpool Competition with 100% records after two games.
Rob Glaysher, the Burscough captain, was particularly happy that his side’s five-wicket opening day victory over Wavertree was achieved despite the absence of Brendan Domigan, and even last Saturday’s victory at Sutton was secured without Navdeep Aujla, the Australian all-rounder from the Brisbane’s Souths club, who is to spend most of the summer at School Lane.
“We started well to beat Wavertree by five wickets but we could, and probably should, have won by more,” Glaysher said. “We managed to dodge the worst of the weather and only lost 10 minutes’ play. It was 20 points in the bag and that was a start.”
Domigan played in last Saturday’s match at Sutton but his team did not depend on his contributions to notch their second win. Instead, Lee Berrie took 4-64 off 18 overs to help restrict the home side to 172-8 declared in 55 overs before Alan Murray’s 42 and Matthew Wright’s 27 guided Burscough towards their target. Liam Dodd did his best to spoil Glaysher’s day by taking 4-59 but the visiting skipper was 19 not out when the two-wicket win was secured in 46.1 overs.
“I’d like to think that our aim’s promotion and I’d also think that the club is ready to be promoted,” said Glaysher. “Brendan is a UK national now and is playing as an English amateur while Navdeep is a top order bat who bowls a bit of medium pace.
“But out of the 11 that will play when we get our strongest side together, eight will have come through our junior system and we even have two Under 18s, Matty Wright and Ryan Hughes, playing in the first team. We’re getting upwards of 50 kids come to our Friday Night Smash Kwik Cricket evening and have Under 15 and Under 16s in our second team.”
Glaysher might also admit that a drop of rain in the right places at the right times does not harm an attempt to win league titles, but if Burscough maintain their current position, it will be because they are playing decent cricket. The School Lane side’s next opponents are Parkfield Liscard to whom they play host on Saturday.
