NORTHOP HALL CAUTIOUS AFTER GOOD START

Date: 15th May 2014

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

Making a good start to the season is the goal of every cricket team in the land but the wise heads know that a couple of victories may also constitute an almighty bear trap. Players can be deluded into believing that a few wins against the weaker sides in a division have set them up for a tilt at the title, only to find that sporting reality has something else in store.

Thankfully for the members at a club which boasts one of the Med Imaging Liverpool Competition’s most picturesque grounds, three wins in as many league games have not turned heads in the slightest. Northop Hall’s triumphs over Wavertree, Newton-le-Willows and Formby have pleased skipper Gareth Williams more for the team effort they have represented than for anything else they might signify.

Talk of promotion to the ECB Premier League is courteously brushed aside. The Smithy Lane players set themselves no targets in the Spring; they just wanted to take a decent pre-season into April and sustain whatever forward momentum they managed to generate.

Yet the victories Williams’ side have achieved are worthy of analysis. They began with a tense 14-run win over Wavertree against whom young Danny Clubbe took 4-30; then Newton-le-Willows were vanquished by a mere two wickets with Alex Smith, Michael Littler and Danny Nolan all contributing useful forties.

Finally, and maybe more significantly, Williams’ men were put to the broadsword by Dale McKay, who made 154 not out in his side’s 246-3 declared, only for Littler’s 78 and the skipper’s second eighty of the campaign to inspire a successful run-chase. These have not been negligible wins.

“This is a young team,” cautioned Williams, “We’re still learning and picking things up as we go along. Yes, it’s been nice to get a good start personally but my main concern is the team. Michael’s innings last Saturday really set the tone for our innings and Danny’s bowling turned that first game in our favour after Wavertree had made a solid start.

One player content to play a relatively supporting role so far has been Northop Hall’s Pakistani professional Adnan Malik,

but harder wickets and the development of the season over five months rather than three games should make the recruitment of the former Fleetwood Hesketh professional look a shrewd piece of business.

“We were looking for a spinner and knew Adnan was available,” said Williams. “He’s taken important wickets for Fleetwood and was the sort of experienced player we were looking for. Signing him made sense.”

And so Northop Hall’s players are happy enough with the start they have made but are suffering no delusions of dominance. In a way, one feels they are happy that their weekly ration of twenty points or so have been tough to come by.

“We’ve had to work hard but in similar situations these are the games we would have lost last season,” said Williams, who was skipper when the club spent the vast majority of the 2013 campaign in the First Division’s relegation places. The captain at Smithy Lane has learned to take nothing for granted and he will, no doubt, be adopting the same approach when he welcomes Sefton Park to North Wales on Saturday.