Arthington 1st XI – 174 all out 43.5 overs	177/1 – Beckwithshaw 1st XI 41 overs
Sourav Chandolia: 36* Himanshu Satyawan: 26	Naveed Andrabi: 10-0-50-1 Naveed Piran: 4-1-10-0

Arthington’s 1st XI finally saw their seven-game winning streak ended when they were convincingly beaten by league leaders Beckwithshaw away from home. Although things started well for the visitors upon winning the toss and electing to bat first, they went downhill pretty quickly after that to a point where they could not recover.

 

Sajid Hussain was bowled in the first over for a duck and despite knuckling down for nine overs, Arthington captain Naveed Andrabi soon followed for just 15 following a stumping. A period of very economical bowling in the next eight overs was then rewarded with the wicket of Hari Krishan for 21 to make the score 46/3.

 

Ahmer Sadiq and Ridham Satyawan laid the foundations of a recovery but all too soon Sadiq was given out LBW for 13 and Umar Farooq followed one over later without scoring to the same dismissal, though it seemed the delivery did brush the bat before reaching the pads so he can consider himself a little unfortunate.

 

Ridham Satyawan, a reliable source of runs for Arthington this season, saw his innings brought to a close for just 19 after a catch behind and though Himanshu Satyawan’s knock at over a run a ball was entertaining, it was also short-lived as he holed out for 26 from just 18 balls, leaving the away side on 105/7 and in dire straits.

 

Two balls later things worsened as Rahul Khode become the third of four wicketkeeping victims when he edged behind but a mini revival between Sourav Chandolia and Harsh Patel, who had moved from one to ten in the batting order this week, gave Arthington a glimmer of hope and a fighting chance as they put on 42 runs for the ninth wicket before Patel was bowled for 23. There was also rear-guard action from Naveed Piran as he stuck around with Chandolia for nearly seven overs but eventually an edge behind signalled the end of the Arthington innings. All out for 174 with Chandolia top scoring with an unbeaten 36 including 4 fours.

 

Arthington knew that lower totals had been defended by them in recent seasons, so they were by no means out of it at the change of innings, but the difference in class of this opposition soon became apparent as Beckwithshaw sucked the life out of the Arthington bowlers, forcing them to bowl 32 overs without reward and amassing a 116-run partnership in the process. There was some joy, at last, in the 33rd over when Arthington skipper Naveed Andrabi made the breakthrough via a catch by Ridham Satyawan, but the hosts were in total command after their defiant opening stand and further inroads were not forthcoming. Not completely satisfied with his four dismissals behind the stumps, Miles Buller of Beckwithshaw then scored a quickfire 29 and combined well with Peter Hotchkiss who finished unbeaten on 74 to carry his bat through the innings. Beckwithshaw eventually won by nine wickets from just 41 of their 50 overs.

 

After such a positive start to the season, the defeat is a sore one for the Arthington 1st XI, who no doubt had visions of a league championship victory in their minds even at this early stage. The loss is a stark reminder that every game at this level will be more competitive than anything they have faced up to now but they should relish the challenge and come back determined to begin another long sequence of victories. Next week they face last season’s closest rivals Colton Institute at the ACG.

 

2nd XI summary – Home against Bishop Thornton

Arthington 2nd XI – 118 all out 29.1 overs	212 all out – Bishop Thornton 1st XI 39.2 overs
Umer Khan: 46 Joe Seaborne: 21	Umer Khan: 6-1-29-3 Muhammad Ali: 6-0-33-3

The Arthington 2nd XI also suffered defeat when they welcomed bottom side Bishop Thornton to the ACG. Arthington captain won the toss and opted to field first, though conditions did look good for batting and remained so throughout the day.

 

The usual opening bowling combination of Joe Seaborne and Riaz Piran took the new ball and, as they usually do, got the hosts off to the perfect start as a string of dot balls ultimately resulted in the wicket of the Bishop Thornton captain and opener without scoring. There was then a pause in the wicket-taking as the opening spells elapsed to make way for the change bowling, where Umer Khan was trusted with the ball. His spell began well, though he himself would admit that when his first two wickets came they were from two of the worst balls of his spell as a half-tracker was pulled via a top-edge to Gareth Meredith at square-leg before a wide half-volley was slapped straight to Zaid Anwar at mid-off.

 

Khan took care of the fourth wicket too, with a better ball, that ended up in the hands of Will Sparling at cover. The fielder said later that his cat-like reflexes effected a pivotal wicket via a stunning one-handed catch but to the casual observer the initial chance was comically spilled and Sparling only saved himself by pinning the ball to his thigh to prevent it hitting the ground.

 

One thing was correct, however, and that was the fact that it was a pivotal wicket as a dangerous partnership had begun to form and the score had quickly climbed to 107/4. At the other end, Muhammad Ali came on for his first taste of bowling in an Arthington shirt and his nicely flighted spin deliveries caused a few problems for the away side’s batsmen. Eventually, the pressure told and Ali got his first wicket via an attempted pull shot that went straight up in the air to be caught by wicketkeeper Steve Potter. Ali then went one better after that to dismiss the left-handed number three Raf Hooper who had reached a run-a-ball 56. His lofted drive down the ground found the hands of Luke Seaborne at long-on, who had run in from the boundary.

 

Ali then rounded off an excellent first spell with the ball for his new club by taking a smart caught and bowled chance. However, despite wickets falling they were not coming in clusters and the runs kept on coming. When the returning Joe Seaborne managed his own caught and bowled dismissal the score was 179/8 and a further 17 runs were added before Zaid Anwar induced a drive to mid-off that was again caught by Luke Seaborne, this time moving to his left. The Arthington captain, having run out of bowling options, bowled the last over himself and a yorker at the base of middle-stump ended the Bishop Thornton innings on 212 all out.

 

For a number of reasons, mostly injury-related, there was another change at the top of the order for Arthington and regular opener Umer Khan was joined by Joe Seaborne, who has impressed in recent seasons in his role at the other end of the batting line-up. Initially, it seemed the new pairing was working exactly as the captain had hoped, with Khan going along at a good pace and Seaborne holding things together. Having reached 46, with his 5 fours and 2 sixes resulting in a relatively spread field, Khan hoisted a simple chance down long-on’s throat to be dismissed and in so doing, though he was not to know it yet, began the swift demise of his side’s reply.

 

Seaborne and Steve Potter inched the score upwards but when Potter was bowled the score was 77/2 and in very little time became 98/7. Muhammad Ali was caught behind, Gareth Meredith gifted a chance to the cover fielder and once Luke Seaborne arrived at the crease he would see another three wickets fall as first Joe Seaborne felt he had edged the ball behind and walked despite a distinct lack of an appeal having made 21, Zaid Anwar’s poor run of form with the bat then continued as he was bowled for a duck and Will Sparling also gifted the cover fielder a simple chance which he took.

 

It was not long before the captain also fell, after the score had just crept over three figures as a thick outside edge skewed to point for a good catch diving forward. Riaz Piran and Dave Howard also offered little resistance and were bowled, leaving Martin Dickinson stranded on eight having struck two boundaries and Arthington all out for 118 in the thirtieth over, 94 runs shy of their target.

 

This was a disappointing defeat for the 2nd XI, who failed to capitalise on good batting conditions and an excellent start made by their openers, as nobody but their top two made a score in double figures. They will need to find a formula for either getting a good score on the board or chasing down a challenging target soon if they are to find success in their upcoming games. Next week they travel to Harrogate to take on their 4th XI.