Returning Aussie Shines on his 21st

Paul Edwards writes for S&B and the Southport Visiter.

Southport and Birkdale’s cricketers warmed up for the start of their competitive season on Saturday when they made light of half an hour’s rain to defeat Prescot and Odyssey by 127 runs in a 40-over match.

Batting first, S&B made 276 for seven in their allotted overs, with skipper Dean Skelton making 68, Ronnie Roy 65 and Alex Halsall, 41.

In reply, P&O replied with 149 for eight with left-arm spinner Peter Crew taking four wickets. However, Monty Horridge bowled well despite enjoying only one success and off-spinner Ravi Sony’s first spell in England was impressive if wicketless.

Sony has travelled over from Australia with Roy and will be playing second-team cricket this summer.

“It was a good workout,” reflected Skelton, “There were some really impressive performances and it was helpful to get a win under our belts before next week.”

On Saturday, Skelton and his players will be travelling to Rainhill to play their first-round match in the Ray Digman Trophy. Horridge has been selected and it is anticipated that the seamer will be a regular in Skelton’s side this summer. Last year, he remained in the second team to help them in their vain bid to stay in the Premier League.

This season, however, he will be in a side whose explicit aim is to win promotion and Saturday’s match represents a transition between the warm-ups and the league programme. It is the latter by which S&B’s season will be judged. 

“The aim is absolutely promotion,” said Skelton. “We had a good year together last year and people know what the script is. We know how we’re going to play and now we’re aiming to have a bit of a title charge. But if we don’t succeed, there’ll be no issue with that as long as the squad is moving forward and making progress.”

The only regular first-teamer likely to be missing from Saturday’s team is Bellis Shukla, who will be replaced by Angus Gailey.

Photographs kindly provided by Angus Matheson - more available with the following link.