COLNE suffered another no-point loss on Saturday as they went down by 52 runs at home to Ramsbottom.
Ramsbottom won the toss and chose to bat.
The star of their innings, looking very much like a star of the future, was 17-year-old opening batsman Tom Parton.
He took the dominant part in a 43-run opening partnership with John Fielding (16) and a 92-run partnership with pro Pieter Malan (33), did not panic when the runs stopped coming for a while, and accelerated the scoring nicely at the end of the innings.
Parton finished 118 not out, the rest of the side (including 21 extras) adding the other 100 in a score of 218-4.
Shadley van Schalkwyk put in a lot of effort in three spells of bowling, and after having trouble early on controlling the extravagant swing, was rewarded with four wickets – three bowled, one lbw.
No other bowler took a wicket, but Jamil and Nathan Whitehead were economical.
The Ramsbottom innings was notable for the excellent running between the wickets.
The top three batsmen in particular were all exceptional in their ability to play basically defensive shots between the fielders for singles, matched with a very good eye for a safe run.
It’s a useful skill to have when the bowlers are keeping the pressure on and preventing boundaries.
Khurrum Nazir (13) was the first man out for Colne, at 24-1.
This brought Joel Duerden in to join Sam Tillotson.
These two put together a careful partnership of 47.
At first they were well behind the run rate, but were starting to accelerate when the innings imploded with the score at 71.
Tillotson (bowled, 30) and Duerden (caught behind, 18), quickly followed by van Schalkwyk for a duck, all were out on that score, and the game was lost.
Tayyib Jamil scored 16, but by the time he was out Colne were 108-8. Only an exciting 50-run partnership between Saleem Qureshi (36) and Adam Holt (22) brought respectability to the score, but the last wicket fell just two runs short of a bonus point, 166 all out.
On Sunday, the first XI travel for the return match at Ramsbottom, with the second XI as usual playing the reverse fixture at home.
Both games start at 1 p.m.