Lancashire League: Worsley Cup Preview (13 Jun 1998)

13 June 1998

Worsley Cup preview

Lancashire Evening Telegraph

HASLINGDEN may be the holders and the reigning Lancashire League champions but Colne professional Joe Scuderi insists the draw for tomorrow's Worsley Cup semi-finals suits him fine.

"Out of the other three sides I'm quite happy with it. We have got to play them some time and if we play well we will go through," said Scuderi who has happy memories of a past cup meeting with the Bentgate Club.

The South Australian all-rounder faced Haslingden in the final in 1995 when he was the paid man at Nelson.

And his top score of 81 and three-wicket haul was instrumental as Nelson picked up the trophy for the first time since 1965 with a 46-run win.

Tomorrow's other semi-final sees championship hopefuls East Lancashire square up with Ramsbottom and Scuderi obviously rates both as difficult opposition.

He witnessed a ton from Ramsbottom's Ian Harvey in their league clash a couple of weeks ago, while East Lancashire's Brad Young - who plays for the same state as Scuderi - has just been called up to the Australia A squad. Haslingden boast the explosive talents of West Indian Hamish Anthony but Scuderi's claims about a favourable draw are backed up by Colne's recent league win over the champions - their only league success of the season.

"We beat them at home and the conditions at home will be different from this time.

"I don't know what it will be like after all this rain, it will be interesting to see, but we know we can beat them and we will back ourselves again," added Scuderi who contributed 61 not out and 3-22 to that victory on his way to a current league aggregate of 366 league runs and 23 wickets.

Colne's lack of success in the league adds extra edge to the cup, the appeal of which may have increased further following the league's decision to drop its limited-overs format.

"We are not going too well in the league so the cup is important to the club," acknowledged Scuderi, who nevertheless was hoping for maximum points at Rishton today to climb the table. The crowds have proved its popularity. You have big crowds for the Worsley Cup games because there is going to be a result. "The couple of games we have played have both been excellent games of cricket and been fairly tight and I'm sure tomorrow will be."

Colne have so far overcome Accrington and local rivals Nelson to reach this stage, while Haslingden have beaten Rishton and Lowerhouse. The change in format to restrict bowlers to 10 overs each could also count in Colne's favour tomorrow, believes Scuderi, although it's interesting to note that both Colne and Haslingden used five bowlers in their league games last weekend.

He added: "This year the team that wins the Worsley Cup will be the team with the best bowling depth. You can't get away with just bowling three bowlers.

"We have got a fairly decent bowling attack with six in our team bowling pretty well."

Source :: Lancashire Evening Telegraph (https://www.reednews.co.uk/let/)