THE draw for this year's Church Times Cricket Cup
quarter-finals and semi-finals has been made. Last year's
finalists, London and Lichfield, are among those through to the
next round.
In the path to the first semi-final, Guildford will play
Salisbury, and Peterborough will play London, last year's
winners.
The path to the second semi-final will see the winners of
yesterday's match between Manchester and a combined
Carlisle/Blackburn team take on Lichfield; and a team from the new
diocese of West Yorkshire & the Dales will take on
Leicester.
In the last stages of the group matches,
Southwark fell to St Albans.
Southwark, batting first, got off to a flying start: Sewell scored
a six with the first ball of the match. He and Groenwald put on 57
for the first wicket in eight quick-fire overs. But then Baker and
Swabey came in to bowl, and wickets started to tumble. Swabey
finished with four for 15. Southwark reached 156 all out.
St Albans started in contrasting style, thanks to tight bowling
from Prior and James. Prior took four wickets from his eight overs
for only seven runs. When Swabey came in to bat, St Albans were
reeling on 16 for three; but he played an aggressive 50 before
falling to the accurate Philbrick.
Middlebrook and Tucker settled themselves to knock off the
remaining runs, and when Tucker fell on 27, the job was nearly
done. Meanwhile, Carlisle/Blackburn had a
successful start to the season, with two hat-tricks in successive
games. On 5 June, they posted 168, including a fine 87 from
Muthalaly, before dismissing Liverpool for 120.
John took the hat-trick.
A week later, Carlisle/Blackburn met
Chester, and bowled them out for 121 (Cook 52),
including ahat-trick from Christian. An all-round batting effort
then sawthem home with seven overs to spare. Sarvanathan finished
on 39 not out.
By contrast, Liverpool have had a poor season.
As well as losing to Carlisle/Blackburn, they fell victim to a
strong Manchester side. Liverpool, batting first,
made 179 for the loss of six wickets. Cook made 42. In reply,
Manchester 182 for the loss of just three wickets. Top scorer was
James on 85.
Southwark 156 all out (Wilkes 44, Groenwald 42;
Swabey 4-15).
St Albans 160 for 7 (Swabey 50, Middlebrook
36*; M. Prior 4-7).
St Albans beat Southwark by three wickets.
Carlisle/Blackburn 168 (Muthalaly 87).
Liverpool 120 all out.
Carlisle/Blackburn beat Liverpool by 48 runs.
Liverpool 179 for 6 (Cook 42).
Manchester 182 for 3 (James 85).
Manchester beat Liverpool by seven wickets.
Chester 121 all out (Cook 52; Christian 4-17).
Carlisle/Blackburn 122 for 3 (Sarvanathan
39*).
Carlisle/Blackburn beat Chester by seven wickets.
*not out