Friday 15 September 2017

Nocton Cricket Club - report

2017 Cricket Season - Nocton in Division 2

Nocton v Blankney, September 10th  2017

Last Sunday the village cricket club played against Blankney on a squally and very wet afternoon. Nocton could only get 9 players to start the game but Miles Lynch came along as quickly as he could – and took a wicket with his first ball!

A study in concentration – Miles Lynch
prepares for another attacking shot

Same concentration but Miles
gave the ball more of a clatter

Another attacking stroke for 4
Blankney were put in to bat by Nocton and they started very slowly making only 40 runs off the first 20 overs but then Lee Dawson and skipper David Thomas started to turn the temperature up and both made half centuries. Blankney finished on 158 from their 40 overs – a challenging total on an afternoon when the weather really only encouraged you to stay indoors and eat chocolate.

Heavy drizzle lashed the pitch at 45 degrees (this was not the temperature – it was the angle of the rain in a fierce wind) to remind us why we rarely play cricket in September. Dylan Garfoot and Mikey opened the batting and got the team off to a great start making 50 in quick time. When Dylan was out clean bowled for 26 – and very annoyed with himself, even though it was a good ball – it brought Miles to the crease and the free scoring continued.

Mikey Atkinson in fine form again with the bat

A pull to the boundary on the way to his 68
An away win looked on the cards as the score passed 100 without further loss but we were short of middle order batters on Sunday and wickets began to fall after Miles was dismissed for 28. Mikey went on to make his 7th half century of the season, finishing with 68 but, in the end, Nocton fell 13 runs short at 145 all out – of which first 3 batters had made 122.

A typical Mikey attacking shot on the offside
We claimed 8 bonus points with batting and bowling and, despite the defeat, we moved up to second in division 2 with 247 points. This puts us 20 behind Scothern and 2 above Billingborough – exciting stuff. There are 2 games left this season. Scothern play Billingborough next week – that will be interesting – while we are away to Bracebridge on the 17th and away to Billingborough on the 24th.

Report and photos courtesy of Jonathan Sides - many thanks

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