Records rewritten at Rayner Lane on historic day for Ashton

It has been a difficult season at senior level for Ashton but, in a sensational display at Springhead on Saturday, the record books were rewritten.

The club is 164 years old and has seen many notable batsmen, both professional and amateur, but never before has there been such a display of hitting as they ran riot on a damp and dismal afternoon weather wise. 

The game, between the bottom two teams in Division 2B, had started for Ashton in much the same way as many others this year, as they fell to 41-3 and then 78-4.

At that point, James Edmondson joined skipper Danny Hawthorne, and the pair added 86 before Hawthorne departed for 44. There were 20 overs with Ashton on 164-5, and it was at that point that the game exploded.

In a display described by one of the spectators as “savage and brutal”, Edmondson plundered the Springhead attack to the tune of 177, in an innings which contained 13 boundaries and 17 ‘sixes’, and occupied 97 balls.

It broke the Ashton record for the highest individual score of 166* which was recorded back in 1906 by Frank Eaton. In more recent times, Jon Selby had reached 150 against Heywood in 2006, but Edmondson’s display rewrote the record books. 

But it wasn’t the end of the record breaking. A 7th wicket partnership of 163, (a club record), between Edmondson and Elliot Blewitt, (38), took only 10.2 overs, and with a quick fire 20 by Om Trivedi, off only 6 balls, the Rayner Lane side ended with 389-8, once again a total never previously recorded or surpassed. 

A shell shocked Springhead fell apart in their reply as Trivedi picked up 4-16 and they were dismissed for 57, giving Ashton victory by 332 runs as yet another record fell. It was Ashton’s biggest win in their history.

After a difficult time since coming into the GMCL in 2018, the performance certainly gave the Rayner Lane members some heart for the challenges ahead.

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