Alrewas closing in on place at top table
A DEVASTATING spell from spinner Sam Van Daesdonk has taken Alrewas to the brink of promotion to the Derbyshire County League Premier Division for the first time.
Van Daesdonk’s 6-17 from 10 overs, of which five were maidens, blew away Wirksworth & Middleton for 98 as they attempted a vain pursuit of Alrewas’s 248 all out at the Walkfield.
That said, it was far from a oneman show from Van Daesdonk as Billy Hodgkinson chipped in with 3-11 asfter Matt Frend had made an early breakthrough.
The Alrewas score, after they had been put in, was a workmanlike allround team effort in which skipper James Burton made 50 of the first 99 from 61 balls with nine fours before he was third man out.
Frend scored 37 from 47 balls and Stephen Cole added 53 from 61 balls with four fours and a six.
Alrewas were all out with two overs of their innings unused but it was soon clear it would not matter as the bowlers got to work.
It means that Alrewas will go into their last game of the season, away to Sawley, occupying the second promotion place, 16 points ahead of Rolleston, who kept their hopes alive with a comfortable win at home to Cutthorpe.
Gareth Marshall scored 59 and Tom Liversage 52 before Liam Goode (29 from 16 balls), Richard Green (32 not out from 16 balls, with three sixes) and Alex Britton (20 not out from 15 balls) added late impetus in a total of 250-5.
Alex Brown undermined Cutthorpe’s reply with two early wickets and a stingy spell of 2-15 from 12 overs.
Ed Barlow scored 51 in 43 balls in the middle order but no other batsman came close as Liversage took 3-43 and Usman Muzaffar 2-45, while Britton and Louis Burrows picked up a wicket each and Cutthorpe were all out for 158.
At the other end of the table, Lullington Park are hanging on by a thread after their 14th defeat of a miserable campaign.
They started reasonably well at home to Ilkeston Rutland and Paul Dawson had 3-44 as the visitors were kept to 110-4.
After that it went wrong as Luke Marriott and Rafay Ahmed added 183 for the fifth wicket, Marriott making 104 from 92 balls and Ahmed 68 from 79 balls.
There was a late flurry of wickets but Lullington did not help themselves by conceding a massive 79 extras, 49 of them in wides as the total rose to 322-9.
Experienced seamer Rob Green then got among Lullington, taking four top-order wickets for 38 in 12 overs.
Sam Eaton, Joe Eaton, Alex Cooper and Brendon Louw, who top-scored with 32, all got starts without going on to a major score and 40 for the last wicket, in which number 11 Faren Price scored 24, only carried Park to 183 in 34.1 overs.
They are 12 points from safety with one game left, away to Morton Colliery on Saturday, and will need to win that and hope others slip up.
Duffield, a point ahead of them, have two to play and the first of those is away to Dunstall on Saturday.
A handful of points from that one would ensure Dunstall of safety but they endured a painful weekend when Alfreton sealed both promotion and the Division One title at their expense.
The leaders, who have batted mightily all season, piled up a mammoth 386-5.
Tom New (87) and Matt New (48) put on 120 for the second wicket
after Ben Whitehouse struck an early blow but when they were both out, former Rolleston allrounder Muhammad Zaroob smashed 101 from only 41 balls, with 11 sixes and four fours.
Ryan Bramwell joined in with 77 from 40 balls, with eight sixes and Dunstall were left in a helpless position, especially once Jamie Benstead had recorded a rare duck.
They managed 205 all out, Whitehouse making 41 and Alec Mason 37, but it was all academic.