Ribblesdale League: Buzzing Barry's burster (21 April 1999)

21 April 1999

Ribblesdale League: Buzzing Barry's burster

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Barry Spencer got Ribblesdale Wanderers off to a flying start with a career-best haul in the Jennings Ribblesdale League.

And the all-rounder, who claimed 6-33 in an opening day derby win over Whalley, believes Wanderers can stay the pace again to mount a title challenge.

"I don't see why we can't do it again. We have lost David Howard to Rishton but that's all.

"We just need one or two of the amateurs to produce the goods and we can have another good season," said Spencer, who helped Wanderers finish second to champions Padiham last summer after forcing his way into the side in mid-season.

And the former second team captain should have done enough in his explosive start to earn an extended run in the senior side.

"For the second half of last season we had a settled side and I would expect to stay in," he added.

"It gives me something to live up to but it has given me some confidence and hopefully I can carry it on.

"It was a great start. I certainly didn't expect six wickets, even though the wicket suited me. It didn't do too much but there was a bit of uneven bounce with the odd one."

The medium pacer came on as first change after Whalley had made a decent start.

Substitute professional Dexter Fitton finally broke an opening stand of 53 when he removed home professional Graham Knowles. Fitton also accounted for skipper Mark Fallon before Spencer, who has played for the Clitheroe club since he was a junior, took six of the remaining seven wickets to fall as Whalley struggled to 102-9. "We'll be expecting that every week now!" said skipper Terry Braithwaite.

"With losing David Howard, we were wondering where his wickets and runs would come from. But if Barry can keep doing that, we won't have a problem.

"He played for the second half of last season and took two or three wickets on occasions.

"We felt we had to give him a go and on the occasions we did, he performed quite well."

Braithwaite is hoping that his side can now capitalise on their good start - they are at home to Edenfield on Saturday - and not have to play catch-up like they did 12 months ago.

He added: "We started with a win last year and then lost the next four which turned out to be our undoing.

"We want a bit of consistency so we don't leave it all to the second half of the season like last year."

Wanderers will have a more settled line-up once their professional situation has been resolved.

Last year's League record run-marker Shahid Nawaz has not yet returned, although he insisted in a letter to the club last weekend that he still plans to play.

"Hopefully the professional situation will resolve itself this week, but you can't do any better than Dexter Fitton did on Saturday," added Spencer.

Former Lancashire all-rounder Fitton followed his two wickets with an unbeaten 70 from 90 balls with nine fours and one six, sharing an unbeaten third wicket stand of 40 with Martin Davies (19 not out) to see Wanderers home.

"We restricted them to a score we could get. It was nice to see. Dexter did his job and Martin Davis also batted well at the end," said Braithwaite, whose side is also in Abbot Ale Cup action this weekend when they travel to Northern League outfit Leyland on Sunday.

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