Lanashire League - Lowerhouse v Haslingden (8 July 1997)

8 July 1997

Lanashire League Pick of the bunch - Lowerhouse v Haslingden

Lancashire Evening Telegraph

WHEN you are bowled out for a paltry 76 on a bad track you have no right to make a game of things - let alone win it.

When you bowl the opposition out for 76 on a half-decent batting track but then go on to lose there are questions in the 'House - the Lowerhouse.

Leaders Haslingden were odds on to be overtaken by second-placed Lowerhouse at the tea interval but it is a measure of the pacesetter's self-belief that they came away with the points.

"We were second favourites all along having made just 76," admitted Haslingden skipper Mark Griffin. "But we kept on fighting and we kept believing we could do it.

"But don't write Lowerhouse off this season. With Corrie Jordaan bowling so well they will get sides out cheap and win plenty of games.

"I'm sure they will be there or thereabouts this season."

Griffin's right about Jordaan but Lowerhouse's Achilles heel is their batting strength.

Any side that fails to get 77 to win a game - they were bowled out for 65 - has to have a question mark over the batting.

But you cannot ignore the contribution of Haslingden's sub-professional Andy Pick. The Nottinghamshire pace man did a great job and for once Jordaan had his thunder stolen. Pick, a stocky little skinhead, is built like a bulldog and charged in with real menace.

"I really enjoyed myself," he said. "Mind you, I always do when I win.

"It was hard work not knowing the lads and who I was bowling to but I was impressed by the way the lads never gave up."

Pick collected two early wickets, including the prize scalp of Chris Bleazard, and that gave Haslingden enough hope.

He charged in without a break putting everything in to his bowling winning plenty of admirers and helping win the game.

"I wish we could have him for the rest of the season," admitted Griffin.

Instead Haslingden face the unhappy prospect of having to find substitutes on a game-by-game basis until the end of the season, their efforts to find a permanent replacement for the injured Brad McNamara having drawn a blank.

Having been sent to West End under strict orders to avoid writing about Jordaan, or the fact that Lowerhouse are the only side never to have won a trophy in their Lancs League history, I had a blank page at tea.

Jordaan had taken 6-24 making his tally 60 for the season and Haslingden's batsmen had given me very little to write about as they had struggled to amass 76. Only Charlie Lord (14) Steve Dearden (21) and Barry Knowles (11) made it into double figures.

And as far as most were concerned Lowerhouse were on their way to the top of the table. I'm not so sure I didn't see a committee member going off to buy some polish to keep silverware shiny.

But then came a fight-back that I suppose only champions are capable of.

Pick's early breakthrough looked to be in vain as Stan Heaton (15) and opener Nicky Hope (last man out for 39) took the score to 36-2 but then Heaton went and Haslingden gradually tightened their grip.

From 54-5 Lowerhouse slumped to 59-9 as Dearden joined the party collecting 4-13 and Pick finished with a well-deserved 5-30.

Lowerhouse fans and players were shellshocked.

But Griffin's right. They will be in with a shout this summer.

Because in Jordaan they possess a player who no-one seems to have mastered yet and as his reputation grows so does his mystery - a vital part of his armoury.

And because Lowerhouse also possess the fighting qualities that Haslingden showed to pull this game out of the fire.

I look forward to the rematch.

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