Birch with 101 from 68 balls

West Indian Cavaliers kept up the pressure on leaders Clifton at the top of the table with a comprehensive 7-wicket victory at Birchover Park against Kimberley. The home side batted first on winning the toss and will have been disappointed to be dismissed for 185 in 49 overs with only Alex Robinson (33) and Paldip Sidhu (44) making significant contributions; much of the damage was done by Saqlain Mushtaq whose outstanding season continued with a return of 4-60. The Cavs barely broke a sweat in overcoming their target in just more than 40 overs with Rawait Khan and Dominic Williamson finishing unbeaten on 67 and 50 respectively.

Clifton’s margin at the head of the league remains 29 points as they cruised to a 7-wicket victory at home to Papplewick. The visitors batted first and were skittled for just 170 in less than 42 overs; Tim Clarke did his best to maximise the total with a battling 66 aided by Aaron Onyon with 40. Martin Weightman added to an impressive wicket haul this term with a return of 4-25 and Liam Andrews chipped in with 3-20. The Clifton top order made light of this meagre total, knocking off the required runs in just 23 overs for the loss of 3 wickets. Dan Birch was the architect of the win scoring 101 in 68 balls with eight 4s and seven 6s, with solid support from Karl Murden with 35.

Welbeck remain in third after squeezing a one wicket victory over bottom-side Kiveton Park; visitors Welbeck won the toss and will have been satisfied with bowling their opponents out for 163 with Luke Waterhouse continuing a fine season with figures of 6-47 and only Richard Grainger putting up any real resistance with a fighting 67. In reply, the Colliers slumped to 90-7 when Matt Higgins fell for 46 and Kiveton were eying an unlikely victory; Jon Ball was out for 42 with 27 runs still required and Richie Bentley fell for 31. But a mixture of youth and experience saw them crawl over the line and grab the win with the final pair made up of 14-year-old Tiger Dalby and club coach and Notts veteran Paul Pollard. Kiveton’s Paul Clark did his best to claim the win for the home side in taking 3-37.

The Nottinghamshire Academy had an equally exciting if less close game with Belvoir at Lady Bay and where the county side eventually ran out winners by 198 runs. The Academy batted first and racked up their highest total of the season closing on 315 for 7 with runs for Sam Kelsall (85), Brett Hutton (62*), Olly Swann (61) and Hassan Azad (32). The leading Belvoir bowler was Darren Bicknell whose wily spinners earned him figures of 3-43. The visitors innings became a study in survival once Bicknell was dismissed for 34; wickets fell regularly with Hutton enjoying a good day by adding 3-31 to his batting exploits and George Bacon 4-19. After a brief rain delay, it was Bacon who took the final wicket to grab maximum points.

After a slow start, Caythorpe are now building a reasonable season record and this continued when they took full points from a 141 run away at Wollaton. The visitors smashed their way to 272 for 5 in the first innings, thanks mainly to a magnificent 159 not out from Josh Mierkalns, who struck sixteen 4s and six 6s in the 151 balls he faced; Jim Hindson has been in solid form with the bat recently and this continued when he chipped in with exactly 50. Wollaton were never really at the races and were dismissed for 131 inside 38 overs with James Godrich the only to make his mark with 50, with Ben Phillips and Stephen Randall taking three wickets each.

Cuckney are now in seventh on exactly the same number of points as Caythorpe after they defeated near neighbours Mansfield Hosiery Mills by 61 runs at home. Cuckney posted 203 for 6 when they chose to bat first with the Ullyott boys to the fore with 74 for Tom and 43 for Will, and 37 for the consistent Ian Parkin. Sudesh Fernando was the leading bowler for the Millers, taking 3-50. But the visitors batting was below par and they were dismissed in 42 overs for 142 thanks mainly to Parkin’s 3-45 supported by Dan Brown with 2-24 from 15 overs. KC Jayasinghe scored the only significant runs for the visitors with 52.