Cuckney remain in the top spot of the Nottinghamshire Cricket Board Premier League but with a slender one point advantage after being made to work hard to secure a two wicket win over Clifton.
They looked to be red-hot favourites to secure a win after they reduced the visitors to 65 for seven with Lewis Bramley ripping out the top four batters on his way to a return of 4-43.
Clifton mounted a recovery built around Dom Harvey’s innings of 41 but they were dismissed for 138 in 44.1 overs. With Cuckney on 83 for four, the game was in the balance and although they lost regular wickets, Richard Stroh’s 31 helped them get over the line with more than 13 overs to spare. Martin Weightman again contributed well with figures of 3-29.
Rolls Royce kept up the pressure on Cuckney with a strong 130 run victory over Farnsfield at Watnall Road. The home side racked up an impressive 271 for nine in their 50 overs with Nottinghamshire’s Ben Phillips (40) and Luke Fletcher (94) leading the assault with support from Adeel Shafique (32).
Jamie Wagstaff again impressed with the ball bagging figures of 5-63 from 15 overs and Mark Silcock chipping in with 3-53. Farnsfield, without professionals Paul Franks and Graeme White, were skittled for just 141 inside 29 overs with only Osama Alam featuring with 39. Adam Shepherd continued his outstanding season with 6-43 from just 8 overs.
The West Indian Cavaliers remain in third after an impressive seven wicket win over Welbeck at Birchover Park. They asked the visitors to bat first and bowled them out for 135 in 38.2 overs.
Atif Ali opened the bowling and took 3-31 but Usman Afzaal starred with 5-33 from 12.2 overs. Olly Pringle was brought into the Welbeck side primarily as a bowler but he has scored some useful runs and his 36, alongside David Hunt’s 33 were the only scores of significance.
The Cavaliers needed just 36 of the 61 overs available to them as Akhil Patel (41) started the chase that Bilal Shafayat finished with an unbeaten 30.
The Nottinghamshire Academy secured their seventh win of the season after a close two wicket win over Plumtree at the PCG. Plumtree did not manage to use up all their overs as they were dismissed for 201 in the 47th over with Joe Tetley securing his place at the top of the order with a well-compiled 80.
Luke Wood bowled well to take his second six-wicket haul for the Academy with figures of 6-41 from 13 overs. Sam Kelsall and Hassan Azad got the Academy to 101 for one before Kelsall fell for 42.
Some inexperience from the county side and some fast, straight bowling from Matt Milnes (3-35) meant that wickets fell regularly. When Azad was seventh out for 83, 30 were still required but sensible batting from George Bacon (32) saw them home with 13 balls to spare.
Mansfield Hosiery Mills welcomed Kimberley to The Fieldings and secured a dramatic last ball win to remain in fifth. The visitors batted first and racked up 244 for three with Sam Johnson starring with an unbeaten 103 from just 68 balls including 13 fours and two sixes with Bharat Popli (43) and Dom Brown (40 not out) providing excellent support.
Gareth Curtis (55) and Joe New (49) put on 102 for the first wicket and despite losing regular wickets the home side got over the line with a ball to spare thanks also to Sudesh Fernando’s innings of 48 and Mark Smallwood’s unbeaten 40. Dom Wheatley and Atif Sheikh took six of the seven Millers wickets to fall recording 3-57 and 3-79 respectively.
The only game to end in a draw took place at Caythorpe where Papplewick hung on to avoid their tenth defeat of the campaign. The home side batted first and closed on 247 for eight thanks to significant contributions from Darren Bicknell (55) and James Oldham (53) with Matt Dowman contributing 32 against his former club.
Jack McIver was the leading Papplewick bowler with a return of 4-27. The bottom placed club finally welcomed Mal Loye to their ranks but he lasted only three balls before being caught behind off Tim Haines.
McIver rounded off a good day with 40 and Mark Nelson’s unbeaten 66 got them to 212 for eight with Jim Hindson taking 3-68.