1st Team battle to a hard fought winning draw over 2nd place Alderley Edge

The first team were back in action after missing a couple of weeks due to the horrendous weather towards the back end of July. This saw the visit of title challenging Alderley Edge to Beaconsfield Road. Alderley off the back of an impressive run of form where without their star bowler former England and Lancs player Stephen Parry, however the chemists where without their very own starman Aaron Soni who's mum decided not to leave him at home during a family holiday to Devon, probably a wise move given that the starman struggles to tie his own laces.

The day started off in usual fashion with another McCoy excuse as to why he wouldn't be able to warm up with the rest of the lads and that he was running late, he stuck by his excuse despite someone seeing him parked up at McDonalds with a sausage mcmuffin and a hash brown being only visible for a matter of seconds before being demolished.

Evans tossed the coin and again in another display of brilliant tossmanship somehow managed to get the stand in Alderley skipper to guess correctly but opt to bowl first. Evans was delighted and he'd planned to bat on a surface which looked only like it would get harder to bat on as the day went on.

with Mccoy running late, Evans turned to another tested opening partnership of Sean' Golden Child' Moore and Lord of the Grove Chris Kirby. Kirby managed yet again to get the chemists off to another scintillating start smashing 20 off just 56 balls, at one stage he was going so quickly the scorers struggled to keep up. Moore and Kirby got Widnes off to a solid start and laid the platform for the lads coming in after them, taking the score in to the 40s for the first wicket. This brought the in-form Shab to the crease who made a dogged 14 however he eventually ran himself out. Shab seemed to be feeling the frustration of not being as free flowing as usual.

Campbell came to the crease with an opportunity to express himself, this was one he couldn't refuse especially given that he was facing off against his friend, friend, cricket friend Sam Perry, who himself was in Zimbabwe at Johnathan's fathers cricket excellence course over the winter. Campbell started patiently before exploding in to action with a brilliant 63 in 80 balls. he was left disappointed getting out wishing he'd have had an extra weetabix for breakfast as he was caught on the boundary, which was later measured at 34 metres, going for another maximum. the chant of boy arms rained down from the balcony. Mccoy and Majeed got the innings moving more quickly with Hewitt and Burns somewhat sacrificing themselves on the hunt for the final batting point with the chemists needed 12 off the final over to secure it. Burns and Hewitt both fell early in the final over which brought Evans to the crease needing 10 off 3 balls the Skipper taking a 2 off his first ball and a 4 off his second could only find a fielder with the last ball and scramble to a single. Widnes were left frustrated just two runs shy of their final batting point. This will be deemed as a missed opportunity and one which could have easily been made if the running between the wickets would have been as positive as it started under Kirby and Moore.

Tea was taken and the Chicken wing challenge commenced Mccoy, seemingly not filled by his earlier Mcdonalds run decided to go in, the final count wasn't taken but double digits where easily accomplished. a Bossman vs Wiggam wing off could be on the cards later in the season.

Widnes went out to bowl and the visitors got off to a bit of a flier with Cheshire opener Calum Rowe and Friend, cricket friend Sam Perry both scoring relatively freely. This prompted Widnes to change the field to block off the scoring zones and leaving the fine leg area open, still to everyones misbelief in the Widnes area Rowe decided to miss a straight one in the attempt of a fine sweep shot and was bowler by 'stump hunter' Qamar Hafiz.

This brought Ed foster to the crease who seemingly didn't get the memo about the badges on helmets like the rest of his team mates, Widnes remembered where he scored last time with most of his runs coming through square leg and mid wicket, the spot was blocked with a fielder on the catch and foster seemed out of ideas of where to score. he eventually was out caught at mid on by Mccoy after feeling the pressure of tight bowling by Majid and Qamar. Lancs twos player Ed Fluck came to the crease and instantly didn't look comfortable under the pressure, Schnick flaring his first ball to Shabaz Bashir at second slip, Shabs lack of movement was remarkable and if he'd been working on Market Street in Manchester probably would've made quite a bit of cash as a statue, the catch went down and he owed his mert Qamar a pint of halal Moretti. Fluck however continued to look in trouble and lasted only 2 more balls dismissed by the Godfather Majid without troubling the scorers.

Tempers had started to flare in the middle as both teams sensed the importance of the game for both of their seasons, with this Evans brought himself in to the attack despite looking for other options throughout the season, it was probably about time he gave himself a bowl. Evans dismissed the set Perry early in his spell with a well worked low full toss which left Campbell with a dilemma whether to catch out his cricket friend or be a proper chemist and send him packing, he chose the latter and dick Turpin had his first scalp of the afternoon. This piled the pressure back on to Alderley who where cruising at this stage with Evans asking them if they had the bottle to chase down the 218.

Former Barnt Green all rounder Wilkinson seemed up for the fight, pummelling majid for the only sixes of the innings, he batted well for his 47 before falling to his fait, bowled Evans caught Moore attempting another big sweep shot, however this time against the spin, falling in to the trap Widnes had laid out to him. Evans and Hafiz held their nerve at the end with Evans finishing on 4-51 nearly brining the 25 big ones home for the chemists.

The game was a close one but Widnes eventually won the battle, restricting Alderley to 205-8 from their 55 overs, Widnes came up 2 wickets short of the outright victory but gained more of the points in a winning draw.

Next week the chemists travel to Grappenhall in another must win game for both sides, it looks set to be a good one at Broad Lane.