Derbyshire County League reports - 20th July 2002

Abbey Glass Division 1

The game between Staveley Welfare and Spondon was abandoned without a ball being bowled. The ground had been flooded by very heavy rain. At two other grounds time ran out, at Lullington Park and at Selston Town, but at two grounds play continued to yield a positive result.

Belper Meadows 178-8 lost to Marehay 179-7 by 3 wickets

Belper put up a stout fight against the Division leaders. Dave Halliday (72) led the way with a fine innings and Ben MsGonigal added 34. For Marehay John Longden took 3-48 and they were helped by a return to form by Arif Mehmood who scored 82, assisted by Adrian Vickerage who made 45. Ben Tait pressed them all the way, taking 4-33 and it was a tight finish..The win enabled Marehay to break clear at the top.

Morton 300-1 declared drew with Nutbrook 270-8

This was by far the highest aggregate score of the day. Morton?s innings got off to a good start with Geoff Deane making 54 and his partner Adrian Elks continuing to his century (103 not out), but the fireworks came from James Miller who compiled 107 not out from just 50 balls, including fourteen fours and five sixes. Nutbrook responded well to this challenge and they were only 30 runs behind at the close, thanks to the excellent response of Alex Mace (72), Richard Cutts (39) and Richard Renshaw (35). They had batted for the full 52 overs available, and with two wickets left they had earned the draw. For Morton John Aspinall took 3-68.

Lullington Park 125-7 v Elvaston 211-8 No Result

Rain intervened here after Elvaston had set Lullington quite a stiff target. Lee Archer was their top scorer with 71 and skipper Richard Johnson (46) gave him good support. Best bowling for Lullington came from Daniel Gough who took 4-53. Time ran out after 32 overs when Lullington were well short of their target with only three wickets left. Andrew Goodwin contributed 32 and John Shales 31.

Selston Town 171-7 v West Hallam 11-1 No Result

Paul Appleby made 60 for Selston, who produced a decent score. No doubt West Hallam would have relished the chase, but they were soon prevented by the rain which came shortly after they started their reply.

Abbey Glass Division 2

Rolleston 173 drew with Allestree 172-5

This was Rolleston?s lucky day as they squeezed home to a winning draw in a match they could so easily have lost. With one ball to go Allestree needed two runs to win and plenty of wickets in hand, but the last pair went for a run which would have given them a tie and there was a run-out. Rolleston?s score included 32 from Dave Bowering and 33 from Ben Stockly. Three bowlers shared the wickets for Allestree, Ben Sarton (3-40), Matt Sirrell (3-37), and Dave Gifford (3-44), and when they batted Sirrell made 45 and Paul Lynne 39. This winning draw puts Rolleston on a par with Ticknall in the race for promotion.

Aston on Trent 159 v Ticknall 51-2 No Result

Ticknall were less fortunate than Rolleston because their match with Aston was rained off during the Ticknall innings..Aston had produced a modest total, with Syed Faisal contributing 40 and Rafaqat Ali 31 not out, whilst for Ticknall Paul Cowley took 3-29.

Denby 2nds 168-9 v Duffield 101-3 No Result

Duffield are by no means out of the race, just nine points behind the leaders, and they , too, were frustrated when rain brought their game to an end at an interesting point. Denby had been contained to a gettable score , with Edward Sims taking 3-45 and Hugh Nichols 3-57. Trevor Sparham made 36 for Denby and when Duffield batted Dave Gadsby was aggressively poised on 57 not out when the storm broke.

Alfreton 262-4 beat Brailsford 67 by 195 runs

There were two centuries for Alfreton in their crushing win, Matt Lineacre with 105 not out and Jon Hughes was out for 102. Then Brailsford were made to suffer by Dave Schofield (5-24) and Shaun Rooke (3-4).

Little Eaton 82-0 v Ockbrook 2nds 242-3 No Result

Ockbrook celebrated their Butterley Cup victory with a run spree at Little Eaton. Clive Crocker made 51 and Nigel Sulley was 139 not out. In reply Little Eaton were going along nicely when the weather intervened, with Tom Wilton 46 not out.

Sandiacre Town 2nds 194-7 v Mickleover 43-2 No Result

A good score for Sandiacre, thanks to Ben Ruhrmund (44) and Nick Briars (67 not out). For Mickleover Brad Moore took 3-42, and the rain put a halt to their batting.

Derbyshire Building Society Division 3A

The struggle for top spot between Elvaston 2nds and A&B 2nds ended in a winning draw for Elvaston which saw them overtake A&B by one point. So desperate were Elvaston to complete the match in the time allowed that they bowled 26 overs in the final hour, no slow over-rates here. In the Elvaston innings (195-6) Ian Murray scored 47 and Rob Kettlewell 37 not out, with Mohammed Ayub taking 3-58, and in A&B? innings (114-7) Mick Helliwell made 53.

However, the lead in this Division was overtaken by Swarkestone who embarrassed South Wingfield by defeating them by 184 runs. Swarkestone?s total of 231 included 63 from Steve Dixon and 77 from John Wilcox, with Mark Lindley taking 6-63 and Gary Coxhead 3-73. South Wingfield were skittled out for 47, with Bruce Dilkes taking 8-11.

Ambergate kept up their title hopes with a 4 wicket win against Darley Abbey, who were confined to 94-8, with Dave Jepson making 47. The bowlers were on top in this match, Imran Ullah (3-27) and Steven Fisher (4-25) for Ambergate, and Tom Howell (4-39) for Darley Abbey.