Last Thursday, on a sunny day over the border in Manchester, the Diocese of Leeds cricket team took on the Diocese of Manchester, at East Lancashire Paper Mill Cricket Club, in the final group game of the 2018 Clergy Cricket Cup.
The Diocese of Leeds won the toss and elected to bat first. After an early loss, Groenwald and Bavington resurrected the innings, scoring 109 and 61 respectively. Arnold then added a quickfire 55 and Christian added a useful 29, with Leeds ending on 270 for 5. Gattenby picked up 2 wickets for the Diocese of Manchester.
In reply, Manchester started brightly but early wickets from Buttanshaw (3) and later Christian (3) put Leeds back on the front foot. Cowling scored 26 valuable runs but the home side were bowled out for 111.
The Roses battle ended with the whites victorious over the reds on this occasion. However, the result did not change the fortunes of the two teams. Manchester Diocese are still to progress to the knockout stages of the competition along with Lichfield Diocese who both ended on 30 points. Unfortunately it is the end of the road for Leeds in the competition as they only managed to finish third in the group on 25 points, five points behind Manchester and Lichfield.
We wish Manchester and Lichfield all the best as they proceed to the next round.