Saturday August 7th 2021

The 3rd XI proved to be the saving grace for the Club as once again they were the only winners from Saturday’s games. Taking on Kirkby Portland 2nd XI at the University they soon had their visitors in trouble as the opening batsmen were both dismissed by James Binnie to take his wicket tally for the 3rds up to 50. Sam Henson then also picked up a couple of wickets and upstaged James somewhat by taking his tally past 100 wickets. However it was Mason Tolley who finished with the best haul of the day taking the last three wickets of the innings for 29 runs to see Kirkby’s innings closed at 127 in the 39th over. The victory was made to look quite a formality as Mason Tolley with an unbeaten 50, his first in league cricket, and Alex Lawrence with 44 took the team to a 7 wicket win with 10 overs in hand. The victory sees the 3rds remain in second place in Division F of the SNCL.

The 1st XI took on Radcliffe on Trent at The Strand in the NPL and, after asking them to bat first, performed well with their bowling and fielding to restrict the visitors to 215 for 8 wickets in their 50 overs. Paldip Sidhu picked up his second 3 wicket haul of the season whilst there were two wickets apiece for Lewis Caine and Arjun Sandhu. Lewis only conceded 28 runs from his 10 overs with some excellent bowling that constantly troubled the batsmen. Unfortunately that was the end of the team’s good work as the batting side of the game fell short of expectations. After two wickets fell in the first over there was no recovery and the innings closed on just 73 with no batsman reaching a score for a loss by 142 runs. The team remain in 10th place as their relegation rivals, Caythorpe, collapsed to an even heavier defeat.

The 2nd team travelled to Gedling Colliery who were one position below them in the league. The home side batted first, relied quite heavily on just one of their batsmen, and scored 185 for 8 wickets in their 48 overs with Angad Singh taking 4 for 23 and both Martin Rayner and Tom Murray picking up a couple of wickets each. In reply the 2s never quite got going with the only significant partnership being between Morgan Jones, who finished unbeaten on 45, and Jai Jandu, in his first game of the season, hitting 27. Unfortunately the team couldn’t quite hold out for a losing draw and the innings closed on 139 in the 45th over – a loss by 46 runs. The side remain in 8th place in Division B.

The 4th XI were at Calverton and, after being asked to bat first were in serious trouble at 10 for 3 but a wonderful 83 from Reece Caine, his highest 4th XI score, together with 42 from debutant Mark Robinson saw them recover to a creditable 168 for 7 from their 40 overs. Unfortunately the score wasn’t enough to win the game as the home side knocked off the runs for the loss of 6 wickets in the 32nd over. The pick of the bowlers was Harjit Singh who picked up 3 wickets for 34.

Despite the losses it was great to see Reece and Lewis Caine’s performances with bat and ball. So now we know: two Caines play at that game – brilliantly; and both Caines are so are much better than able.

Graham Shaw