Romiley householders can start thinking about extra insurance with Stuey Milne around….. The mighty hitter was at his blistering best at Pott Shrigley on Saturday(June 19) – and he needed to be…..We had given our least convincing bowling performance of the Meller Braggins Cheshire League Div. 3 campaign. But, thanks to the Reading rocket, backed superbly by Andy Bashford, our sixth successive league win came with five wickets and four overs to spare. The bonus was that it was enough to edge us into a one-point lead over Woodford in the title race. Ned Kelly, despite feeling under the weather, had helped Bash add 44 for the third wicket after Tom Rolph(1) and Rick Holt(13) had gone for 39. But when Ned(24), Ben Allcock and debutant Dave Badrock had departed for 13 runs, our 180-run victory target started to look a problem. Enter Stuey at 96-5 and the homesters’ smiles rapidly disappeared. His first six scoring shots were 4,4,6,4,6,4.  Bash is not exactly a scoring slouch and he also struck some lusty blows, but he was out-blasted here. Of their 87-run stand, collected in 12 overs, Stuey scored 54, including six fours and three sixes.  Bash’s clever support of his thundering partner brought him an unbeaten 69, decorated by ten fours and a six. It needed something special to make up for the outfield performance. Nick Fithon struck twice in his first three overs to leave the home side struggling at 9-2. But the collective foot was taken off the pedal and Pott were allowed back on their feet. Opener Barlow(52) and Matheson(66) put on 91 in 16 overs and the fact that skipper Alex Barber turned to seven bowlers showed our problem. Finally, Paul Garner had Barlow misdriving and it was David Badrock who had Matheson stumped in a promising leg break spell. Billy Flattley and the rarely used Milne were our meanest bowlers as Pott subsided. No 10 Jackson was the only other batsman to reach double figures. He hit 29 before being undone by Barber’s pace and Pott finished on 179-9. It could have been enough but for Milne-Bashford blitz.

Scores: Pott Shrigley 179-9(45 overs; Matheson 66, Barlow 52; Fithon 2-19, P.Garner 2-46, Barber 1-37, Flattley 1-13, Milne 1-9, Badrock 1-17). Romiley 183-5(41 overs; Bashford 69no, Milne 54no; Mattock 3-52).