Five wicket defeat for Newtown Linford
NEWTOWN Linford’s promotion hopes were dealt a blow on Saturday when they slipped to a five wicket away defeat at the hands of Hinckley Town.
Batting first, Newtown Linford made a confident start reaching 50 before losing Philip Lowe for 13 runs and then two further wickets, when Samuel Hopkins was dismissed for just eight runs and Dean Scaysbrook was out for 42 with the score standing at 76-3.
This brought Branden Brodell to the crease and he became the cornerstone of the Newtown Linford innings, hitting an unbeaten 107 as they reached 267-8 from their 45 overs, Jon Dale chipping in at number nine with a useful knock of 30 before he was caught off the bowling of Singh.
In reply, Hinckley started well, reaching 66 before Steve Armson bowled opener Asad Pathan for 16 runs.
Fellow opener Craig Crowe helped take the home side’s score to 176 before he was dismissed for 93 runs.
Although Newtown Linford grabbed two more wickets, a home victory looked on the cards and knocks of 33, 30 and 28 by the Hinckley middle order guided them to 269-5 with two overs to spare to clinch a five wicket victory.
The defeat sees Newtown Linford lose ground in the race for promotion, sitting in fifth place in the table, 43 points behind second placed Uppingham Town and a further two points adrift of the league leaders Langtons.
There was no joy for Newtown Linford’s 2nd XI either as they slipped to a 51 run home defeat against Quorn.
Batting first Quorn made 147 all out but it proved enough as Newtown Linford were skittled out for just 96.
Opener Steve Bailey made 44 runs and Andrew Oldham scored 24 but the other nine batsmen failed to make it into double figures.
Stovell, Kenneth and Reynolds all picked up three wickets apiece as Quorn won the game in 39.4 overs.