Bicknell's Belvoir travel to Lady Bay

Both sides at the bottom of the table have tough fixtures this weekend as the opportunities for them to climb out of the relegation zone reduce; bottom side Kiveton welcome Welbeck for the first time in the Premier League, hoping to avoid a second loss to the Colliers after the 7 wicket loss earlier in the season.  That game saw a match-winning return of 6-45 from Jonathan Ball and only Adam Dutton’s 74 making a significant batting return for Kiveton.  Welbeck need to get back into the winning habit, having not tasted victory since the home win against Caythorpe in early June, resulting in them dropping to third place and fifty points from top spot.

Belvoir will not be relishing the visit to Lady Bay to take on a Nottinghamshire Academy side that are building a second solid season in the top flight.  The county side are in fourth, just four points behind Welbeck and looking to secure a top-three spot year.  Belvoir are the only side in the competition that are still winless though in Darren Bicknell, they have one of the most obdurate and skilful players, currently fourth in the league batting stats with 694 runs at an average of more than 86.  The Academy welcome back their three England Under 19 stars after the one day series against South Africa and will be hoping that Hassan Azad can continue his excellent form from last weekend’s breakthrough ton against Mansfield Hosiery Mills.

Table-toppers Clifton welcome Papplewick to the Clifton Oval hoping to consolidate their 29 point lead over West Indian Cavaliers; the leaders are looking to extend their seven match winning streak and will also be keen to go one better than the first match between these sides this season when an evenly fought contest saw Papplewick get to within 16 runs of their target with only two wickets in hand.  The batting stars that day, Clifton’s Dan Birch (91) and Papplewick’s Alex Lloyd will both want to book in for some runs on the flat Clifton track.

West Indian Cavaliers are also at home, this week welcoming a Kimberley side still smarting from losing their two most recent games, against Clifton last weekend and Papplewick the previous Saturday.   Kimberley skipper Sam Ogrizovic was instrumental in the three-wicket win over the Cavs earlier this term, scoring an even hundred to inspire the win.  The Cavaliers, by contrast, in the middle of a hot streak of form, having won all six games since their loss to Clifton in June.  Their three Test players are all in solid form with Alex Tudor passing the 25-wicket mark in last week’s win at Belvoir.

Wollaton have had a decent couple of weeks with an improving league record and progress in the ECB T20 competition to look forward to; this weekend, they host Caythorpe, two places and twenty six points ahead of them in the table.  The home side have David Smith (435 runs at 33.46) and Tim Young (402 at 36.55) in good nick with the bat and want further wickets from Alex King and Rhys Owen.  Caythorpe will take confidence from their win last weekend against Cuckney when former Notts star Jim Hindson starred with bat and ball, scoring and unbeaten 49, followed up by a bowling return of 6-40.

The final game sees Mansfield Hosiery Mills travel to Cuckney; the Millers have not win since beating their hosts back in May Paul Burdett and Guruge Fernando grabbed 50s.  But it is their bowling attack that must be causing most concern with their leading wicket taker, KC Jayasinghe, amassing only 14 season wickets thus far.  The home side have struggled to bring some consistency to their season, not having won more than two consecutive games.  Richard Stroh and Ian Parkin found some batting form in the loss last weekend to Caythorpe, hitting 42 and 38 respectively.