Lancashire League: Baby-faced assassin (21 June 1999)

21 June 1999

Lancashire League: Baby-faced assassin

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Alex Scholefield is know as the 'Boy Wonder' among his Todmorden team-mates after making a dramatic impact on the first team scene three years ago.

And the 20-year-old medium-pacer lived up to that nickname with a stunning performance which turned this Lancashire League encounter on it's head.

When Tod skipper Richard Baigent tossed the ball to his young protege, Accrington were well set for an imposing total at 87-3 with plenty of overs and wickets in hand.

But Scholefield - the baby-faced assassin - had other ideas and a six-over spell, which reaped 4-3, triggered an almighty collapse.

All too often over the last few seasons Accrington's batsmen have been known to suffer from domino syndrome - once the first one falls, the rest soon follow.

But the arrival of new professional Mark Bailey seemed to have cured them from that this season until Baigent decided to play the ace up his sleeve.

And whether it was by luck or good judgment, the move paid off as Accrington collapsed like a house of cards, losing their last seven wickets for the addition of just seven runs.

"Stuart Parker bowled well at that end and James Morgan did well at the other, so we already had them tied down," said Scholefield.

"I just came on, put it there and ended up getting four wickets.

"I've been bowling well all season without really getting any reward. "On Saturday, it just all came together."

Batting never looked easy in the damp conditions and Accrington's cause wasn't helped by the loss of opener Steffan Heins (three) and Bailey (16) early on.

Mus Ahmed lead the recovery, though, and grafted his way to 38, before becoming one of Morgan's three victims with 67 on the board.

Even at that stage, there were few signs of the drama to follow as stand-in skipper Mark Burns and Wayne Roberts then took up the gauntlet.

Roberts, in particular, quickly found his feet with three dashing fours through extra cover.

But the introduction of Scholefield soon put paid to that.

He had Burns caught behind for 10 and then accounted for Matt Wilson with his next delivery.

Morgan got in on the act with two quick wickets to see off Roberts (15) and Tariq Hussain (three) before Scholefield returned with two more victims to mop up the tail.

"It was a fairly decent track to bowl on because there was a bit in it for the bowlers," said Scholefield.

"There was a patch at the end I was bowling from where it seemed to lift.

"And it was also doing a bit off the seam as well." Todmorden openers Stewart Priestley and Richard Baigent confirmed that theory by making heavy weather of their reply.

But Accrington's bowlers couldn't make the breakthrough until Baigent (21) was caught behind off a lifter from Zahir Afzal in the 19th over.

Professional Brendan Nash (10), and then Priestley (26), quickly followed suit to set Todmorden's nerves jangling.

But Scholefield was in no mood to let Accy off the hook and a quickfire unbeaten 22 saw his side home in the nick of time before the heavens opened.

"We were talking about it in the changing rooms and we calculated we needed 76 off 30 overs if the rain came down, so we'd fallen behind that a bit," said Scholefield.

"But they helped me out by bowling three full tosses which were easy to score off, so I got my runs quickly.

"We've now got 48 points out of 48 from the last four games, so everyone feels really good at the moment.

"We weren't doing too well earlier in the season chasing targets but we've shown we can do it when our confidence is up.

"The team spirit is great, it's probably the best I've know, and we're now looking to get right up there in the league."

Source :: The Lancashire Evening Telegraph