The top game in the tenth round of the Nottinghamshire Premier League was at Derby, where Rolls Royce Leisure played host to leaders Cuckney.
Rolls won the toss and invited Cuckney to bat, making an early breakthrough before Daniel Wood (37) and Adam Burgess partnered in a stand of 86. Burgess (75) was then joined by skipper Will Butler to add a further 81 taking the score to 178 for three.
Butler featured in a further stand of 65 with Lewis Bramley before he was eventually sixth out for 77. The Bears innings closed on 293 for eight, Adam Shepherd taking 4-65 doing most to slow their progress. In reply, Rolls made steady progress as most batsmen got starts, but failed to kick on and make the big scores that may have gotten them close to the target.
Tom Lungley’s score of 38 was the highest they managed until Adam Shepherd blasted a quick 49 towards the end. Ian Parkin took 3-47 as Cuckney fell two wickets short of victory settling for the best of a draw.
Plumtree started the day in second and had to settle for batting second after Radcliffe-on-Trent won the toss at the PCG and elected to bat first. The visitors found themselves in a spot of bother at 94 for four, but opener Ben Carr held the innings together adding 53 with Jake Fish and 59 with Eddie Torr (30). Carr was eventually eighth out after scoring 105 from the final total of 242 for eight. Both Matt Milnes and Glen Read ending with identical figures of 15-2-63-3.
Much like Rolls Royce, Plumtree’s run chase never really got going, with several batsmen making starts before being dismissed. David Bedingham making 51 as the only significant score of note. Plumtree finished the day eight down with 203 runs on the board, giving Radcliffe the winning draw.
Clifton Village closed the gap on Plumtree with a winning draw of their own at home to Ordsall Bridon. Clifton won the toss and decided to bat first, finding themselves at 53 for two, before Richard Harris on his way to 51 and Shreyas Iyer with 74 added 108 for the third wicket.
Caleb Mierkalns (43) then added 68 with Martin Weightman (41) as Clifton made their way to 293 for nine from their 50 overs. Martyn Long with three for 61 and Aqab Ahmed with three for 80 led the bowlers. At 111 for one, Ordsall were in the game, Paul van den Heuvel’s 45 contributing to stands of 50 with Nick Legg and 61 with Martyn Long (33). They then lost a flurry of wickets to fall to 164 for seven. Aqab Ahmed’s run a ball 41 led the resistance as Bridon forced the draw, closing on 185 for seven.
At Birchover Park, visitors NCB Academy won the toss and elected to bat against the West Indian Cavaliers. A decision that didn’t look like the best of options as the slumped to 86 for eight. Ben Kitt joined skipper Paul Franks (30no) and took attack as the best form of defence, striking 37 from 33 balls before Gary Keedy helped Franks see out the 50 overs and closed the innings on 162 for nine.
Usman Afzaal took 3-41 for the hosts. Despite Afzaal’s 30 the Cavs found themselves 89 for four and in a tight spot before skipper Bilal Shafayat (54 not out) joined with Aaron Thomas (31 not out) to seal the win with an unbroken 77 run partnership.
At The Fieldings, home side Mansfield Hosiery Mills opted to bat first after winning the toss against Caythorpe. They lost regular wickets en route to 80 for five, before captain Tom New and Keshara Jayasinghe led the recovery with a stand of 113, New falling for 85. Jayasinghe remained not out at the close, having made a run a ball 68, the final tally reaching 213 for seven. Matthew Dowman’s 3-25 leading the Caythorpe attack. Caythorpe’s run chase was relatively untroubled as for the first time this season each of the top order batsmen made a contribution.
Martin Dobson (34) and captain James Hawley opened with a stand of 66, before Steve Allcoat scored 43 in a stand of 73 with Hawley who then added 55 with Dowman. Hawley was there at the close, not out on 84 as Caythorpe secured a seven wicket win with 16 balls to spare.
At Welbeck Colliery, the home side won the toss and chose to bat first, where a 50 run fourth wicket stand between Jamie Jevons and Andrew Parkin-Coates got the innings back on track, after Matthew Cross’ early 43. Parkin-Coates then partnered with Jacob Ball to add 82 for the sixth wicket. Ball fell for 36, with Parkin-Coates next to fall having made a fine 112. Welbeck closed on 283 for nine. Tom Rowe with four for 66 and Christopher Glover with 3-68 led the Kimberley Institute bowling.
The Institute reply was led from the front by Dominic Brown who fell for 50 with the score 87 for three. Former captain Sam Ogrizovic then partnered with Sam Johnson (49) to add 60 but the loss of further regular wickets hampered the chase leaving them to see out the final overs to secure the draw, closing on 214 for nine. For the Colliers, Matthew Higgins took 3-56 and Richie Bentley 3-52 to subdue the batting.
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