Saturday July 10th 2021

A disappointing set of results this week as all four league sides suffered defeat – the 4th XI by the smallest margin in coming within a single boundary hit of a remarkable win.

The 4s were at home against Old Dalby who they had beaten by a massive margin just three weeks ago. A very different game this time as the visitors batted first and put together 240 for 7 from their 45 overs. Ben Goodlass was the pick of the bowlers picking up 4 wickets for 51 runs – his second 4 wicket haul against Old Dalby. In reply it was skipper Sam Randall that led the charge hitting 10 4s and a 6 in making his third league hundred for the Club and his second against Old Dalby this season. His main support came from young Reece Caine who scored his first half century and finished unbeaten with an excellent 59. Unfortunately the team came up just three runs short of their target scoring 237 for the loss of just 5 wickets. The team should certainly take some solace from their performance and in making such a great game out of it.

For the 1s there was a home game against next to bottom Caythorpe. Deciding to bat first they made a decent start on a wicket that gave the bowlers some encouragement, losing their first wicket at 57. Caythorpe’s bowlers then dominated proceedings as their two spinners completed 20 overs for just 37 runs taking 4 wickets between them. 7th and 8th wicket partnerships between Elliot Foster, who top-scored with 37, and Jude Noble and then Jude and James Tilbury took the score to 162. Despite losing wickets quite regularly, Caythorpe’s batsmen always seemed in control with one batsman making the difference with a match-winning unbeaten 90 being particularly punishing on poor balls offered up rather too often by the Squirrels bowlers. Savin Perera was the most economical and highest wicket taker with 3 for 24 from his 10 overs.

For the 2s there was a great start to their game at Plumtree as Ben Sheppard (67 from 63 balls with 9 4s & 2 6s) and Angad Singh, hitting his first half century for the Club (56 with 5 4s & 1 6) put on 130 runs for the first wicket. From historical data available this 1st wicket partnership overtakes the previous best of 123 scored by Sam Clulow and Chris Allcoat back in 2014. The impetus was somewhat lost however as wickets tumbled regularly thereafter and the team were all out for 226 with just one ball remaining. What looked to be a decent score was very quickly downgraded though as two of Plumtree’s batsmen proceeded in taking the Squirrels attack to the cleaners. With a scoring rate of almost 8 an over they completed the win with 19 overs to spare and 7 wickets in hand.

After their disappointing exit from the T20 Raleigh Cup in midweek, the 3rd XI were further frustrated by a 7 wicket defeat against Bramcote. After electing to bat first they collapsed to just 83 all out which the home side knocked off quite easily with plenty of overs and wickets to spare. Tom Shields picked up a couple of the 3 wickets to fall for 11 runs from his 8 overs.

Graham Shaw