Bracebridge CC remain League leaders!

Lincolnshire ECB Premier League – Saturday 2 July

League leaders Bracebridge Heath maintained their marvellous form with a comfortable victory over city rivals Lindum on Saturday.

After winning the toss and electing to bat at Cross ‘O’Cliff Court, Bracebridge got off to a shaky start, losing opener Nick John and Karanjit Bansal early. But a partnership of 94 for the third wicket between Vikram Atri and Lincolnshire skipper Paul Cook steadied the ship significantly before Lindum’s left-arm spinner Matt Rutherford captured Atri’s wicket for 55.

Cook can often be seen blazing the ball around cricket grounds throughout Lincolnshire with gay abandon, but he showed he can also ‘dig in’ when his team needs him to. His runs usually come at more than a run a ball, but this time his score of 86 came from 107 balls. Digging in indeed! Cook’s Premier League strike rate this season is still at 120 after this relatively sedate knock.

When Cook was dismissed with Bracebridge on 186 for 5, it looked like they would have to settle for a fairly modest total, but left-handed allrounder Brett Houston came in at seven and crashed 44 off just 32 deliveries to boost his side’s score and give them vital momentum going into the interval.

Rutherford was by far the pick of the Lindum bowlers, as is so often the case. He claimed 3 for 49 from his allotted 17 overs.

With Lindum needing 248 to win and missing two key batsmen in Pierce Morley-Barnes and Alex Hornsby, it always looked likely to be a tall order against a Bracebridge bowling attack containing the miserly Houston and overseas quick Ashley Schultz.

However, as in the Bracebridge innings, it was spin that did the trick. Off-spinners Matthew Bradley and Bansal, who played for Lindum last season, claimed seven of the wickets between them as Lindum were dismissed for 161.

The win means Bracebridge extend their lead at the top to 43 points over second-placed Market Deeping, who could only draw at home to Skegness.

At the other end of the table, Hartsholme made light work of Nettleham at Mulsanne Park. Already stranded at the bottom of the league, Nettleham knew this game against their local Lincoln rivals was a must-win fixture.

On winning the toss the Nettles decided to bat first, but they got off to a poor start as Phil Brown was trapped lbw in the first over of the game. All of a sudden they were 19 for 3 and the decision to open the batting with veteran Russ Binnington seemed to have backfired as he spooned a catch to mid-off.

The only respite for Nettleham came during a partnership of 60 between Tom Dalton and Australian pro Daniel Wright for the fourth wicket, as the Nettles lost their last six wickets for just 55.

Somewhat of a fringe player this season, Hartsholme seamer Paul Sheppard showed what he can do and was the star man. The 32-year-old bowled a mammoth 17 over spell claiming 5 for 58, demolishing Nettleham’s top and middle order in the process.

The final wicket fell in the 40^th over and Nettleham had been bowled out for a paltry 134.

With South African professional and perennial big run-getter Warren Nel opening the batting for Hartsholme, it was almost inevitable they would surpass their opponents score pretty swiftly. And so it proved. Nel scored 78 not out and was ably assisted by the classy-looking Nathan Poundall, who scored 41 not out after recently returning from medial knee ligament damage sustained early in the season.

Hartsholme’s nine-wicket win took just 22 overs and a ball of their innings to secure, this defeat for Nettleham against a team who had only won once before this fixture being utterly embarrassing. At this, the half-way point in the season, Nettleham are already 55 points from safety.

There was a much tighter encounter at Louth’s London Road ground as they took on Grimsby. On winning the toss Grimsby elected to bat, but could only muster 133 all out. Lee Charlton managed 60 before he was caught and bowled by Louth skipper Mark Roberts. It was a good job Charlton did score some runs, because with the next highest score being 16 it may have been anything but a close game.

Stewart West followed up last week’s heroics of 8 for 44 with 3 for 42 for Louth, as he captured the key Grimsby wickets of James Morgan and skipper Richard Antcliffe.

Louth’s reply did not get off to the best of starts, as they fell to 16 for 2 and then 58 for 4. Grimsby’s overseas pro George Linde is taking the league by storm with his left-arm spin. He bowled another superb spell, this time of 16 overs, taking 5 for 31. Linde has already got 41 wickets this season, claiming three 5 wicket hauls along the way.

Linde’s efforts were not quite good enough to win his side the match on this occasion though, as Louth crept over the line by two wickets in the 47^th over. Joe Irving did the most to see his side home as he hit 43 before getting out with just eight runs to win and Grimsby desperate for the two remaining wickets.

Second-from-bottom Woodhall Spa welcomed last year’s champions Bourne to Jubilee Park, knowing a big points haul would give them a large boost and hope of survival.

Speculation that Pakistani international Fawad Alam is coming to join Woodhall again this season after controversially playing several games last summer has not yet come true. They could certainly do with him after losing this game by 105 runs.

Given 105 is the exact amount of runs Bourne captain Peter Morgan scored, you could say the victory was all down to him. Morgan has struggled for form so far this season, with Lincolnshire’s Conrad Louth scoring a big chunk of Bourne’s runs instead. Yet on Saturday Louth got a four-ball duck and Morgan smashed a superb century, helped along by a half-century from Ben Stroud as the pair shared a third-wicket stand of 131.

Woodhall’s overseas spinner Daniel Milgate claimed 5 for 92 but 258 always looked difficult to match with Bourne’s bowling attack boasting fast bowler Fahad Masood, who topped the bowling charts last season.

Spa ended up being bowled out for 153, skipper Jack Luffman putting up the only resistance with 66 at the top of the order. Masood finished with typically economical figures of 4 for 36 from 15.4 overs as he cleared up the tail with minimum fuss.

Elsewhere, Sleaford continued their resurgence after a poor start to the season by recording a home win over Boston.

Boston were bowled out for just 143 in only 33 overs, Sleaford winning by five wickets with Luke Hollingworth hitting 60.

At Market Deeping’s Outgang Road a phenomenal 714 runs were scored in the day as Skegness posted a massive 417 for 5.

In reply, Deeping managed an impressive 297 for 4 themselves, still unbelievably 120 runs short of their opponent’s score, meaning they had to be content with a one point losing draw as well as collecting their bonus points. Further details for this game have unfortunately not yet been made available.

To follow Martin on twitter please go to @shillitoon86

Or see how his team are getting on click on Hartsholme CC