Amateur on a roll

AMATEUR’S good early season form continued with another win against Thorpe Arnold.

Amateurs lost Jason Tipping and Stuart Garry early on a difficult batting pitch following heavy rain.

Ollie Winder steadied the innings before the inform middle order duo Alan York, with 47, and Ed Proctor, 78, including three massive sixes into the nearby stream, took the score to a respectable 158-3.

The Amateur late order batsmen had no answer to fast bowler Myles Hickman (7-31) as they were bowled out for 181.

Although with the large outfield and uneven pitch the total felt above a par score and at tea the Amateurs felt confident of a win.

The Melton side struggled to score quickly with opening bowlers Ash Harrison and Alan York bowling economically and containing the Melton batsmen.

The introduction of spinners Jamie HarrisEnsor and Mick Butterworth kept the score down to 66-2 off 30 overs.

But with the rate creeping up, Hickman came to the crease and after a slow start with the rate up to almost 10 an over he leashed an onslaught against the Amateur bowlers to reduce the target to just 28 off the last four overs.

Alan York then produced a stunning caught and bowled as Hickman went for another big hit and the Amateurs got home by 12 runs to keep their unbeaten run for the season going.

At Ashby Rd Amateur 2nd had a disappointing defeat against Walton le Wolds.

Amateur bowled well to restrict the visitors to 1418.

James Axon took three wickets.

Sam Gill and Paul Musson took two each.

For the second week running Steve Mustin and Ben Smith got the innings off to a good start.

But after Neil Smith was out another batting collapse saw the Amateurs fall 20 runs short of victory.

Ben Smith continued his good form as he top scored again with a good knock of 47.

Amateur 3rd travelled to Newtown Linford and lost by 37 runs.

The home side batted first and tight bowling from Tom Flannery, taking three wickets, looked to keep the score under 150.

But a poor last 10 overs turned the match as Amateur were bowled out for 187.

Skipper Dan Hall with a season’s best 60 and Aaron Gosling put on a 50 partnership and a win looked on the cards.

But when Gosling had to leave the field wickets tumbled and the young Amateur later order struggled.

They were eventually bowled all out for 150 but gained some valuable bonus points from the match.