With the sun blazing down and not a cloud in the sky Swinton Moorside started the new cricket season with wins for both the first and second teams against local rivals Winton.
Both should have been comfortable but the firsts nearly managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory.
Winning the toss and bowling first against an understrength side, Swinton watched Winton race to 38-0 from five overs with a flurry of boundaries from openers Johnson and Humphrys.
However Swinton’s returning overseas amateur Jake Brown took both Humphrys (25) and Driver (0) in the same over, following up with the wicket of Johnson (21) to leave Winton 63-3.
The introduction of Dean Davies (2-25) and Dean Atkinson (4-17) blew away the Winton middle order and tail as they went from 83-3 to 101 all out, only Seenan with 22 showed any resistance.
Swinton only needed to bat sensibly to record a victory. Their innings started steadily with openers James Wade and Dave Flatley scoring steadily to take the score to 32 before Flatley was clean bowled by Marchment.
It was the introduction of spin at both ends which turned the game towards Winton.
Both Seenan and Humphrys whirled away with Humphrys having Callum Flynn stumped and Jamie McDougall bowled.
At the other end Wade was scoring steadily and with the score on 89-3 Wade went for the big shot to bring up his 50 but was caught in the deep by Markey off Seenan for 47.
This was followed by half an hour madness by Swinton as new batsmen came and went in very quick succession. 89-3 became 97-8 with Winton looking like they were going to pull off a very unlikely victory.
By now Dean Davies had joined Tom Hughes and they both defended with a straight bat, and a pull to midwicket by Hughes and a wide down legside secured the victory for Swinton.
Winton’s spin duo of Seenan 3-23 and Humphrys 4-32 bowled admirably but could quite finish the job.
Swinton’s seconds had a much more comfortable eight-wicket win.
Batting first, Winton were bowled out for 84 with only Brown (14), Bellingham (15) and last man McCaffery (16) reaching double figures.
For Swinton Raffey Khan continued where he left off last year with a superb opening spell of 3-17 from 12 overs.
He was ably supported by Kev Pescott 1-22, Lean Hurst 2-13, Simon Halsall 2-19 and Adam Finneran 2-9.
In reply Swinton finished the game in 16 overs losing only two wickets Higham (8) and Finneran (20).
Josh Brownbill 18no and Mike Farrell 32no saw Swinton to their first win of the season. Next week opponents are Bury with the Firsts at home.
