Leaders Cuckney were able to extend their advantage at the head of the table after a remarkable game against their closest rivals, Clifton Village, at Langwith Road.
After winning the toss, Bears skipper Will Butler invited the visitors to bat first. Despite the early loss of Scott McNeill, things were progressing well for the Villagers until their innings was interrupted by a rain delay.
Tim le Breton (56) and Richard Harris (39) had combined in a stand worth 72, taking the score to 101 for one, when the game turned after the rain as Butler and Ian Parkin ripped the Clifton line up to shreds. Nine wickets fell for just 14 runs as they were dismissed for 115. Parkin taking 3-12 in 8.4 overs and Butler finishing with 6-7 from his six overs.
Cuckney’s reply got off to the worst possible start as Martin Weightman struck first ball, but despite going on to figures of 3-40, Luke Thomas making 34 and Nick Langford with 30 were able to lead the home side to a four wicket win.
Plumtree took full advantage of Clifton’s slip, with a thumping eight wicket win at Rolls Royce Leisure. Having won the toss, the visitors invited their hosts to bat and made early in roads. Reducing Rolls to 63 for three despite 35 from Gurpej Landa. Dan Birch and Tom Lungley added 72 for the fourth wicket, Lungley’s contribution being 12.
Birch continued to the end of the innings, blasting 122 not out from 99 balls as Rolls finished on 233 for six. The Storey brothers got the Plumtree chase of to a great start, the partnership being broken by “Nelson”, when Ben fell for 38 with the score 111. Joseph Tetley joined Sam Storey at the crease, scoring 43 of their 104 run partnership that got them to the verge of victory.
Sam Storey had already passed 100 by this stage. He ended the day 118 not out as Plumtree passed their target with three overs remaining. The win lifts the Plums into second in the table, 11 points behind Cuckney.
West Indian Cavaliers lay fifth in the table, and will have been looking to take advantage of the top four playing amongst themselves as they went to Ordsall Bridon.
Rain delayed the start of play and with the overs reduced to 35 each, Ordsall elected to have the Cavs bat first after winning the toss. The Bridon bowlers made early progress reducing their visitors to 64 for four, but Akhil Patel scoring at almost a run a ball, held the innings together before he was dismissed on 99.
On reaching maximum batting points, Bilal Shafayat declared the innings closed on 183 for seven. Matthew Makings with three for 45 led the bowling.
The Bridon reply made a slow start, as they fell to 20 for two. Paul van den Huevel (36) and David Fagan then combined in a stand of 75 to get them back on track. By the time Fagan fell for 82, Bridon needed just seven more for a maiden victory, which they duly accomplished with seven balls remaining.
After achieving their first positive result of the season last week, Radcliffe-on-Trent went to Kimberley Institute with enough confidence to ask their hosts to bat first. It probably didn’t go quite to plan as Dominic Browne (40) and Tom Rowe took the score to 84 for two, and set up the key partnership of the match.
Sam Johnson joined Rowe at the crease and by the time he left it, having scored 96 from 84 balls, the pair had added 166 for the third wicket. Rowe would go on to complete his century, scoring 102 from 107 balls and George Bacon blasted 33 from 14 balls as the Institute innings closed on 320 for five.
Radcliffe’s reply found itself in trouble at 48 for three, before a breezy 30 from David Lucas helped spark a recovery, which became a survival mission at 141 for seven. Eddie Torr led the rear guard with an unbeaten 53 as the Trent men held on to secure a draw.
At Lady Bay, the NCB Academy side won the toss chose to bat against visiting Mansfield Hosiery Mills, losing early wickets, before Daniel Freeman and Adam Tillcock added 71 for the third wicket. Freeman was fourth out for 68, after which wickets fell regularly as Brett Hutton made 43. The innings closed with the Academy on 214 for eight, Matt Wright finishing as leading bowler with three for 69.
The Millers struggled to make any real headway against some tight bowling, falling from 72 for one to 124 for nine, with only Tom New with 39 putting up real resistance.
Robert Townsend and Kyle Garside were able to hold out for the draw, closing the innings on 141 for nine.
Ben Kitt making a successful come back from injury taking 5-41. On his Academy debut, former Lancashire and Surrey off spinner Gary Keedy who is spinning coach at Nottinghamshire also picked up a couple of wickets.
In the mid-table battle at Caythorpe lengthy rain delays in the first innings left the match a “timed” affair. The hosts won the toss and Welbeck Colliery were first in to bat, reaching 125 for three around an innings of 49 from Matthew Higgins. Andrew Parkin-Coates made 30 and Richard Stroh 34 as the Colliers posted 204 for six from their 50 overs.
The hosts made a steady start to their reply, knowing they had 35 to 40 overs available, and had reached 68 when Martin Dobson was run out. James Hawley smashed the ball straight back at the bowler (Jonathan Ball) who was able to tip it onto the stumps catching Dobson out of his ground.
From there, Ball took over and when Hawley fell for 60 it became about whether Welbeck could get all the wickets. Despite Ball’s 5-60, they couldn’t and the game ended with 6 points each plus bonuses.