Match Reports 04-05/06/11
Sandiacre Town’s dominant start to the season continued as they brushed Alfreton aside at Longmoor Lane on Saturday.
Rob Attwood won the toss and placed faith in his team to earn him a third successive 27 point win at home on the bounce, but it was plain sailing as they lost James Chapman for a duck, yorked by the left-arm seam of Australian Nicholas Walden.
Walden was being backed up superbly by Adam Burton who bowled an excellent 10 over spell costing just 23, with John Trueman and Naveed Quershi playing carefully. Qureshi was very quick to latch onto anything short or with a bit of width, powerfully cutting and pulling both bowlers to the boundary.
Having reached 33 Qureshi was given out caught behind. There was a noise as the ball passed the bat but Qureshi’s obvious disappointment coupled with a rather half-hearted appeal from the behind the stumps suggested the noise may have been bat on pad, regardless though, Qureshi was on his way and the wicket was nothing less than Burton deserved. Trueman followed soon after, edging a cut to Alex Mace in the gully off John Clarke’s bowling. The relief from Mace – who had dropped a similar chance in Clarke’s previous over – was pretty evident.
As they seem to have done several times so far this season Matt Gouldstone and Dave Jordison with the score 67-3 began rebuilding the innings, and they did so with consummate ease. They milked Alfretons bowling, turning over the strike and finding the boundary. They added 116 for the fourth wicket as both batsmen passed 50.
Alfreton needed something special to break the partnership and they found it when Gwatkin brilliantly ran out Gouldstone for 57. Gouldstone had help set a platform for Sandiacre’s big hitters and it was John Jordison who stepped up to the plate. When Dan Wheeldon had been bowled by Ben Slater for 5, Jordison joined his brother in the middle with the score 192-5 and took charge, scoring 54 of the next 75 runs. His unbeaten 54 took just 22 balls and included four fours and four sixes. It was a blistering display of clean hitting that knocked the stuffing out of an otherwise spirited Alfreton side.
Realistically Sandiacre’s 267 was likely to be beyond Alfretons reach and the question at tea would be whether Alfreton come hold on for a share of the spoils. The answer was an emphatic no.
Jake Simpson and Graham Bush have started well this year, scoring run albeit slowly. But within four Dan Wheeldon had sent both packing. Simpson edged to third slip where Goudlstone took a sharp catch, while Bush was rather more unfortunate slapping a square-cut straight to John Jordison at point.
Gwatkin and Mace had the unenviable task of keeping out Wheeldon and new ball partner Ryan McFadyean. They managed this quite well, Gwatkin in particular, whilst paying and missing on occasion he cashed in when Wheeldon staying in line, clipping several fours to leg and offering a contender for shot of the day with a drive through mid-on.
However, when Mace played his first real shot in anger, cutting away a wide long-hop from McFadyean he could find only the safe hands of John Jordison at point. It was probably the worst ball McFadyean bowled but his spell deserved a wicket and it he followed it soon after with the wicket of John Clarke, caught behind without scoring.
At 39-4 the last thing the opposition need is to see John Jordison being brought into the attack, it’s a luxury few teams can boast, and you just can’t keep him out the game at the minute. He followed his runs and catches with four wickets for just 14 runs; ending Gwatkins resistance (25 from 50), trapping Dean Whitmore in front and bowling Stuart McRobert and Daniel Robbins. His wickets sandwiched another for Wheeldon who finished with 3-27.
At 70 for 9 the writing was on the wall for Alfreton. Burton and Walden kept Sandiacre at bay for a while, holding out for 69 balls between them, but eventually Sandiacre found a way through. Chapman came into the attack and pushed a fuller delivery through Burton’s defences. Sandiacre wrapping up a 177 run victory as Alfreton were shot out for just 90.
The Second team slipped to their second defeat of the season as they were beaten by 7 wickets against their counterparts from Denby. Batting first Sandiacre were restricted to 169-8 from their 46 overs. The experience of Dougie Burgoyne was key as he took 4-37. Six of Sandiacre’s batsmen made it into double figures but none made it further than Tom Priestley’s 37. Denby rather coasted to victory losing just 3 wickets and reaching their target with 21 balls to spare. Michael Mitchell anchored the innings with an unbeaten 64.
It was a successful weekend for the Third XI as they won both games of a league double header. On Saturday they beat Stainsby Hall 2’s by 4 wickets, chasing 178 for victory. Stainsby’s innings dominated by John Wood’s 77 while Paul Standring, Ben Trembling and George Domleo picked up 2 wickets apiece. In reply Sandiacre were struggling and it was left to numbers 7 and 8, Ben Trembling and Gareth Davis put the run chase back on track. Trembling hit 36 and Davis 54 as Sandiacre won with 4 balls remaining.
On Sunday they took maximum points from their game in hand. They beat Alfreton’s thirds by 107 runs to complete a miserable weekend for Alfreton at Longmoor Lane. Sandiacre’s 238-7 was largely thanks to Chris Attwood’s 84 and Matt Shuttleworth’s stylish 91. 65 from Alfreton’s opener Adam Priestley and 28 from Phil Walters at number 5 kept Sandiacre at bay for a while, but when they were out Alfreton crumbled. There last 6 batsmen making just 2 between them. Paul Standring took 5-16 as Alfreton were all out for 131 in 41.3 overs.
The First team were also back in action on Sunday in the National 20/20. They beat Dunstall by 16 runs to set up a group final with Matlock. Having made 152-5, which included another quick-fire fifty from John Jordison (69* from 38 balls) and 32 from Ally Leek, Dunstall always struggled to keep up with the required rate. Dan Wheeldon took 4-13 from his 4 overs as Dunstall came up short.