Until the Meller Braggins Cheshire League use the Duckworth-Lewis format, or a version of it, to decide rain-affected matches, we shall continue to get farcical finishes as happened at Barnton where our losing draw took our winless spell to five. Barnton, bolstered by Garrod’s 70, left us to make 200 for victory. That total would have been testing but, when the rain came at tea, it made it a job for Kieron Pollard……. By the time the saturated ground was made fit we were left with just 17 overs to make the total Barnton had needed 45 overs to reach. In such circumstances in first class cricket, Duckworth-Lewis is used to reduce the target while the Cheshire League merely reduce the overs available to the chasers, a ridiculous handicap. Such a situation cost Hyde the Premier League title last year and there will be more such heartbreakers unless a sensible change is made. And there was more frustration….If we could have started at 6pm, we would have been allowed 28 overs, but though both captains wanted to play, the umpires delayed the re-start another 45 minutes on safety grounds. Not even a little collusion between the skippers could produce a positive result after that. Barnton, threatened with relegation, need the points as much as we do at the other end of the Second Division table and to ensure we would go for victory, they agreed to provide some nonsense bowling for the first two overs so we could get to 40 which would have left us to get 160 in 15 overs at just over 10 an over. But it took us until the fourth over to get that far and by then we had lost big hitting Alex Barber, who had promoted himself to boost the run chase.  We were still going at 10 an over with Ben Allcock leading the charge. But our fate was sealed when we could score only four in four overs, losing two wickets. Allcock, whose first three balls were fours, left on 78 in the 11th over. Then it became a question of how many batting points we could get. But despite the efforts of Danny Oldland, unbeaten with 21, Billy Flattley(9) and Dave Badrock(10no), we finished with one, six runs short of a second. Earlier, tight bowling by Barber, Flattley and Paul Hooton restricted Barnton to just 66 half way through their 45 overs. But despite much playing and missing, our only reward was Stuey Milne’s smart gulley catch that snared Farnworth off Flattley. The other opener, Sowerby, led a charmed life until Hooton trapped him in front for 46 after adding 93 with Garrod. Then the bulky No 3, who’s never scored under 50 against us in four knocks for Stretton and now Barnton,  increased in strength and confidence. It took one of Milne’s occasional left armers to get rid of him for 70, but by then the charge was on, the score being nearly doubled in the last 11 overs. Then came the monsoon and what would have been an intriguing contest ended in a frustrating farce. With Lindow winning by five wickets at Lymm and Winnington Park taking 16 points against Kingsley, the margin between us and Park’s final promotion spot grows to 38 points.
Scores: Barnton (45 overs; 199-5, Garrod 70, Sowerby 46; Milne 2-26, Flattley 1-21, Hooton 1-37, Barber 1-77). Romiley (17 overs; 119-6, Barber 31, Allcock 23 , Oldland 21no; Tong 3-35).