South Lincs & Border League
Premier Division
Lindum 2nd 215-7
Grantham 216-7
Grantham welcomed Lindum’s second team for a top-of-the-table battle on a glorious day at Gorse Lane on Saturday.
On winning the toss, Lindum elected to bat on a good batting track. However, the strike bowlers for Grantham made early inroads with Simon Oakes removing the in-form Bray and Joe Peck dismissing Lilley and Dunn, leaving Lindum on 28-3.
Lindum then set about rebuilding their innings with a good partnership between Sarkar and Mundy, before Adam Parker effected the run-out of Mundy with the score on 74.
Again, Lindum were able to build a good partnership between Sarkar and the hard hitting Watkins before Parker removed Sarkar (56) with the score on 151 and then quickly dispatched Alford.
However, Watkins continued to bat with aggression and passed his 50 and finished 85n0. Mark Fell removed Taylor thanks to a good catch from Joe Peck.
In reply, Grantham knew they needed a good start and this was achieved thanks to openers Stewart Mudie and Fell with their partnership passing 100 before the latter was removed by Benson for 27.
Martin Parmley was then run out for 16 and David Whapplington was unfortunate to go the same way.
At this point, the luck seemed to be going with Lindum but Mudie continued his fine form before being dismissed for 78 by Benson with the score on 156-4.
Grantham needed more than seven runs an over with eight remaining so they knew that shots needed to be played at the expense of some wickets.
With 20 runs required, Joe Peck and Matt Wing batted sensibly through punishing the bad ball and running quickly between the wickets.
Wing batted brilliantly to guide Grantham across the line with an excellent 35no and hit the winning runs with a guided four to third man with an over to spare.
Second placed Grantham are now the only side who are unbeaten and this week are at home game against Skegness.
Division One
Grantham 2nd 85 all out
Cavaliers 86-5
Grantham’s second string visited Cavaliers, batted first and got off to the worst possible start, finding themselves 14-4 in no time at all.
Contributions of 21 from Danny Ashley, 17 from Tim Mihill and a belligerent 23 from Ady Wing saw Grantham scrape together a total of 85.
This was always short of a defendable total, but Cavaliers lost five wickets in the chase, with Fergus Myles (3-19) the pick of the Grantham bowlers.
Grantham & Melton
Association
Division One
Bottesford 159-9
Belvoir 163-5
Belvoir won the toss and elected to bowl first.
They started well through the strike partnership of Danny Gibson (3-28) and Fraser Fentem (2-27) by dismissing Robinson and Jordan early on. When Darren Bicknell dismissed Bottesford captain Phil Irvine first ball from a brilliant one handed catch by Lewis Dann, Bottesford were struggling.
Silverwood (43) and Hutchinson (40) showed great resistance and began to rebuild the innings. However, both were caught out from the bowling of Bicknell (3-17).
In reply, Belvoir had a poor start when Hutchinson bowled Ross Denton out for only five. Hubbard (16) and Dyer (19) showed their experience by seeing off the new ball, however both were out to the bowling of P. Irvine (2-38), leaving Belvoir at 62-3.
This brought Dann (46) and Ryan Lewis (38) to the crease together, putting on a partnership of 92 which took the game away from Bottesford, leaving Belvoir to knock the runs off comfortably in 32 overs.
Grantham 295-3
Barkby 161-4
Grantham lost the toss and were put into bat. Grantham set the tone straight away with Stewart Mudie (106) and David Whapplington (123) scoring freely and frequently.
Both batsmen performed brilliantly with the pair of them getting centuries and putting on a monumental 256-run partnership.
Barkby got off to a solid start, putting on 79 for the first wicket.
After losing their openers, Barkby never really kicked on and finished 134 runs short of Grantham’s total.
South Notts League
Division B
Clifton 2nd 124 all out
Belvoir 125-2
Belvoir look to have a couple of young novice Truemans and Stathams in the form of Fraser Fentem (4-9) and Danny Gibson (4-21).
Both of them swung the ball prodigiously to make the Clifton batsmen play and miss on numerous occasions.
When their youth forced the Belvoir captain to replace them, Clifton were 24-4 from 14 overs.
Lewis Dann and Jack Copley chipped in before Bernard Kirk (26) and Haroon Maqsood (42) mounted a fightback. The former playing steadily and wisely whilst the latter took a more devil-may-care attitude, at one point collecting three consecutive fours.
Their stand of 70 for the seventh wicket gave respectability to the score. But back came Fentem to have Maqsood brilliantly caught one-handed at short square leg, diving to his left off the full face of the bat. The catcher? Who else, but Fentem’s bowling partner Gibson. Between them, they took the last four wickets in seven balls for two runs.
Olly Clayfield (retired hurt for 52) and Jack Copley (29) gobbled up the runs, with 87 for the first wicket in 12 overs.
Copley’s was a bag of allsorts with brutishness and sweet timing in equal abundance – his cricket is always impish and, consequently, a delight. Clayfield saw more of the bowling and, after a couple of false shots, cut, drove and pulled with aplomb.
His half-century came in 45 balls with 10 fours – he retired shortly after bringing his brother to the crease for his final innings for the club. There wasn’t much left to do but he still managed a couple of classic driven fours from his familiar crouch, before Dann hit the winning runs in the 20th over.