Saturday July 17th 2021

A roasting hot day of mixed fortunes for the Saturday teams as the 2nds and 3rds secured wins in their home games whilst the 1sts and 4ths slipped to defeat in their away games.

The 3rd XI take the prize for the most exciting of games securing victory against Chilwell 1sts with a 6 off the final ball of their allotted overs – the second time this has occurred this season. Chilwell elected to bat first and made 191 for 8 wickets from their 45 overs with the spinning version of Alex Lawrence picking up 3 for 48 and Evan Goldman 2 for 9 – both bowlers recording their best figures for the 3s. The reply was centred around Sam Clulow, who finished unbeaten on 90 after opening the batting, and Evan Goldman scoring his first 50 for the club with 64 not out. It was left to Evan to become the team’s hero as he hit the final ball for a magnificent 6 to surpass Chilwell’s score by just one and complete a win by 6 wickets. The 3rds leapfrog their opponents and rise to 2nd place in Division F of the SNCL.

The 2nd XI took on Caythorpe 2nds at The Strand and soon had the visitors in trouble as skipper Ali Lee removed both openers before Angad Singh really asserted the Squirell’s dominance by taking 5 wickets for just 25 runs – his maiden 5 wicket haul and, perhaps more surprisingly, his maiden maiden in more than 130 overs for the club. Caythorpe were dismissed for a lowly 161 in the 37th over – a very gettable target. However, wickets fell fairly regularly in reply with no batsman asserting control. Neil Thurlow was the top scorer with 35, supported by Ben Sheppard 26 and Mason Tolley with an unbeaten 26 off just 16 balls. The three wicket win was secured with almost 12 overs to spare and the full 20 point win sees the team also leapfrog their visitors to move up to 7th in Division B.

The 1sts travelled to aspiring NPL champions Kimberley for what was always going to be a tough game. After being asked to bat first the home side got off to a very strong start with the opening pair putting on 72 from 11 overs but there then followed a good spell for the Squirrels as wickets fell and Kimberley were suddenly struggling on 140 for 5. However, as very often seems to be the case, recovery was just around the corner and a partnership of 116 and some late big hitting saw the innings close on 321 for 9. Three batsmen had scored almost 82% of their team’s runs. Spinners picked up all the wickets with Arjun Sandhu taking 4 for 53, Burhan Alam 2 for 47 and Andy Simkiss 2 for 57. The reply got off to traumatic start with skipper Ben Shaw run out after a misjudged call from his teammate and a direct hit from the fielder. A quick finish looked a strong possibility as the score reached just 38 for 3 wickets. However a partnership of 112 between Paldip Sidhu (78) and a hard-hitting Zak Tribe (67 with 2 6s and 9 4s) saw the game turn once again. After 29 overs with the score at 149 for 3 the 1s were just 3 behind Kimberley’s score who had lost two more wickets. And even after 40 over there was just 14 runs difference between the two teams’ scores with the same number of wickets. A closer game than it may look at first glance then, with the winning margin of 65 runs almost all coming in the last 10 overs. In an increasingly tight situation towards the bottom of the NPL the 1s remain in 10th place.

The 4th XI took on Chilwell 2nds and, after deciding to bat first, the home side were all out for 226 in their 45 overs with the best bowling coming from Charlie Crofts 3 for 51, his first league wickets, and Sam Dickinson 2 for 56. The reply mostly revolved around Brendan Ryan with an unbeaten 50, his first in the league, taking the score up to 167 for 9 wickets and leaving Chilwell the winners by 59 runs. Yet another leapfrog manoeuvre from the winning side sees the 4s drop to 9th in Division H.

Graham Shaw