Saturday August 14th 2021

In a game that perfectly illustrated just what fine margins can make such a huge difference to the result, the 1st XI sadly slipped to a one wicket defeat at Clifton Village. Stand-in skipper Savin Perera elected to bat first after winning the toss and then proceeded to hit 10 beautifully timed boundaries to every part of the ground on his way to 76. His 15th score of 50 or more took him past 1,500 runs in the NPL for the club. The best partnership of the innings came from Savin and Elliot Foster who added 60 for the 6th wicket with Elliot making a run a ball 36. Angad Singh, making his first appearance for the 1s this season, batted well in making 21 but no-one was able to put together an innings that would take the score significantly past the 200 mark. The side were bowled out for 196 in the 49th over. The Clifton response got off to a disastrous start with both openers being dismissed with the score on only 6, a wicket apiece for opening bowlers James Tilbury and Lewis Caine. The home side then recovered somewhat to 83 for 3 before Zak Tribe claimed two wickets in one over including that of their best batsman. Even though the required run rate was never a factor in the game, this set the Squirrels as favourites to win the game and they looked increasingly likely to secure the victory as wickets fell regularly and Clifton looked totally out of the game with the score on 143 for 9 – 56 still needed with only one wicket in hand. But you never know with cricket and a tremendous partnership saw them steal the win with 2 overs to spare. It could so easily have gone the other way – an inside edge just missing the stumps; a slip in the field after a shower of rain; a straight drive hitting the stumps at the bowler’s end; a wrong-un that spins a tad too much and misses leg stump by a whisker; an umpire’s call – but at the end of the day you just have to move the focus onto the next game; in this case the relegation battle with Caythorpe on Sunday.

The 2nd XI were the Club’s only winners this week with a convincing 6 wicket win over neighbours Long Eaton. Batting first at The Strand the visitors were restricted to 218 from their 48 overs despite only losing 5 wickets with Matt Hill acquiring two of these. The outcome never seemed to be in doubt as Albert Gardiner with 61, Morgan Jones 57, Neil Thurlow unbeaten on 37 and Alex Lawrence 24 made short work of their task and completed a 6 wicket win with almost 8 overs to spare. Neil passed the 1000 run for the 2nd team milestone and Matt finished the game off with a huge 6 to underline the margin of victory even further. The two teams swap places in Division B of the league with the Squirrels moving up to 6th from 8th.

The 3rd XI travelled to Birchover Park for a top of the table clash with Cavaliers & Carrington. On a wicket akin to Coronation Street a high scoring game was never going to happen and after electing to bat first the home side were dismissed for just 124 with skipper Chas Simkiss taking 4 wickets for 21 and vice skipper Sam Henson claiming 4 wickets for 50. The reply was always going to be a struggle with Sam Clulow top scoring with 31 and only Sam Henson and Evan Goldman managing to reach double figures. The innings closed at 85 and defeat by 39 runs but despite this the team remain in 2nd place in Division F of the SNCL.

The 4th XI were also involved in a low scoring game at the University that also ended in defeat, this time by 8 wickets to West Bridgford Legion. Batting first the 4s were dismissed for 98 although some resolute batting is evidenced by them occupying the crease for more than 41 overs. The visitors managed to knock off the necessary runs for the loss of 2 wickets. The team drop down a place to the bottom of Division H although there is very little points difference between the three lowest position teams.

For those that may love to see a stat or two. From the Play-Cricket details the 4th XI game saw Carl Knight secure his one hundredth fielding victim – a big achievement in itself, but he has now become the only Attenborough player to claim at least 10 victims in each of the four fielding categories – wicketkeeper catches, stumpings, outfield catches and run outs. Well done Carl!

Graham Shaw