A welcome win for Cropston after a poor run of form
ON THE hottest day of the year so far the toss of the coin became of great interest to both teams and it came down in favour of Loughborough Town 2nds captain Simon Wilson who had no hesitation in electing to bat in their clash with Cropston.
Loughborough soon lost both openers A Kavi and J Goddard the latter to a one handed pick up and throw from cover point by Ross Wormleighton who broke the wicket with only 1 stump to aim at. This reduced Loughborough to 15 for the loss of 2 wickets.
Cropston captain Ian Allen having bowled 5 overs and taken 1 wicket for 10 runs took himself off at the field end and brought on Justin Earl with his slow medium seamers who bowling to a well set field tied up the end, his first 3 overs being maidens
He was supported by Alfie Loakes who having bowled Simon Wilson with a well pitched up yorker bowled his last 2 overs for no runs, thereby keeping the pressure on the batting side.
Coming on at the houses end slow left armer Ethan Hawkings kept the mounting pressure on and the scoring rate turned to a trickle with the batsmen reduced to defending unable to pierce the well set fields. As Cropston chipped away at the Loughborough batting lineup which was reduced to 40 for the loss of 7 wickets. Coming in at 8 Charles Clarke batted for 24 balls for 4 runs to resist the Cropston attack together with Harry Bradley who top scored with 12 they took the score passed 50.
But Cropston were not to be denied and Loughborough were bowled out for 59 in the 34th over. The Cropston slow bowlers returned the remarkable figures of Justin Earl 10 overs, 6 maidens 3 wickets for 13 runs and Ethan Hawkins 7 overs, 5 maidens, 4 wickets for 4 runs.
With 9 overs to be bowled before tea Cropston lost the wickets of Ross Wormleighton for 3 and Max Lewin for 10, but Steven Punchard and Joe Pollard took the innings to tea with the score standing at 39 for the loss of 2 wickets. Cropston took 3 overs after tea to score the runs required for victory without losing another wicket. The not out batsmen being Steve Punchard 26 not out and Joe Pollard 20 not out.
A welcome win for Cropston after a poor run of form, this takes them to 7th in the league and onto 113 points.
Credit to Ian Allen for his well set fields and the Cropston bowlers staying on line and bowling to them.