1st Team Win Not Enough
Heywood’s 1st team went into Saturdays game knowing that they needed to beat Glossop and rely upon a win by 2nd placed Westhoughton against Walshaw to guarantee them survival in Premiership Division 2.
Batting first at Glossop, a ground where Heywood have had struggles in the past, the Crimble outfit found life slow going on a difficult pitch. Most of the Heywood top order got a start but were unable to go onto make a match winning score. In the meantime news from Westhoughton looked positive as Walshaw slipped to 93 – 6. A 45 run partnership between eventual top scorer Marty Walters (34) and skipper Sean Burrill (27) started to give the Heywood innings some momentum just as news filtered through that a Walshaw recovery had seen them post a challenging 179. Heywood in the meantime battled to 146 leaving things intriguingly poised at the tea interval.
Early wickets would always be crucial for Heywood and so this proved in both games. Heywood soon reduced Glossop to 59 – 6. In the meantime Westhoughton were doing little to help Heywood’s cause having fallen to 5 – 4. Despite a 65 run partnership for the 7th wicket Heywood managed to bowl Glossop out for 128 with Caleb Grant leading the attack with figures of 4- 43 supported by Rich Slatem and the Humphries brothers – Dom and Joe who all had 2 wickets apiece. All now hinged on whether Westhoughton could fight back. Having slipped to 114 – 9 things looked bleak but a 33 run partnership for the last wicket started to offer Crimble supporters a glimmer of hope, only for Walshaw to snatch the last wicket bowling Westhoughton out for 147, securing their survival and Heywood’s demise into the championship.
Numerous reflections will occur over the winter but in suffering relegation by 4 points Heywood would probably identify 2 games as turning points in the season. Getting rained off against bottom of the table Friarmere when in a match winning position and losing in a low scoring match away at Stand were games that eventually cost Heywood.
The club must now rebuild over the winter and plan for a season in the Championship alongside teams such as Greenfield, Bury, Saddleworth, Edenfield, Mottram, Glodwick, Stand, Friarmere and Astley & Tydesley.
