With the thick, dark cloud overhead and the threat of rain, the weather at Oxton was a far cry from the glorious sunshine we have enjoyed for the past few weeks. The wicket was a dark green, and Oxton skipper Williams invited Hyde to have a bat on it.

With regular opener Partridge away, the Hyde skipper was accompanied by Luke Young to open the innings. The toss was looking like a good one to win, with the Oxton openers applying pressure early on. Berry looked to alleviate that pressure, but this only saw him lose his wicket, bowled by Stenhouse for 4. Fisher joined Young, but the two weren’t together for too long with Young getting a thick edge on a cut, straight through to the Oxton Captain at slip, Hyde were in a precarious position at 22/2. However, Fisher and Duffy soon settled in, with the ball finding the fence at regular intervals. Duffy reached his half century after 53 balls as the pair added 73 for the third wicket. Fisher was the man to depart when he picked out Corran off of Thompsons bowling. Fitzsimmons took to the wicket, and looked comfortable right away, seeming to score with ease. Both Batsmen were beginning to pile on the runs, at more than a run a ball. Fitzsimmons departed for a well-made 36, but the introduction of Whittaker offered the Oxton attack no respite. Duffy reached a sensational century, his second of the season, but first in the league, looking at ease throughout his innings. After his ton, Duffy seemed to mistime more and more shots, eventually being removed by a great catch from Jones off of Thompson. Duffy departed for 133 off 121 balls, which included 15 4’s and 4 6’s. Cranmer came and went first ball, trying to sweep Thompson. Allcock and Whittaker saw out the remaining overs, leaving Hyde 251/6, a total that was inconceivable at first glance of the wicket.

With the rain delays suffered in the first innings, Oxton were left with 44 overs to chase 252. Hyde got off to a great start, with Wightman trapping Gibson LBW for 6. Williams joined Smith at the crease. The two added 46 for the second wicket, scoring relatively quickly, but nowhere near the required rate. Whittaker succeeded in removing smith, once more LBW. Cranmer took the wickets of Johnson and Williams in quick succession, bowling the former and removing the Oxton Captain to a caught and bowled. Oxton had slumped 68/4 and there were still a lot of overs to bat. Things got even worse when Wightman removed Thompson, caught behind for a 14 ball duck. Luke Filer was now at the crease, and was looking to force a result. Quadri wasn’t able to stick with him and was Wightman’s third victim of the day. Jones and Filer went about the task of the draw in completely different ways. Jones looked to go over the top to take the pressure off, while Filer was content with seeing the ball off. The pair nearly took Oxton home, but Jones drove Chew into the safe hands of Duffy. Oxton were 119/7, and that is how they would remain, with Corran following Filer’s lead and blocking out the remainder.

While it was a disappointing result for Hyde, we can take a lot of positives from it. The amount of runs we managed to score on a green wicket was phenomenal and James Duffy’s innings was something special to behold. Credit must go to Luke Filer for digging in to earn Oxton a draw. He faced 70 balls for his 7 and didn’t give us much of a chance of getting his wicket. Hyde remain one of 2 teams in the Cheshire County Cricket League who are unbeaten. However, we also missed a golden opportunity to go top with Upton losing at Urmston.