Cropston are the early pacesetters
ON SATURDAY Cropston entertained Loughborough Town 2nd XI at the Keith Jackson Memorial Ground.
Captain for the day Sam Hickinbottom won the toss for Cropston and elected to bat. Opener Ross Wormleighton fell third ball caught at the wicket off the bowling of Tom Snell for 0 and this brought to the wicket Joe Pollard who with David Allen slowly moved the score along.
After 10 overs they had progressed to 30 before Allen was caught at the wicket from the bowling of Wooldridge for three.
With Pollard playing the sheet anchor role together with Sam Hickinbottom they put on 72 for the third wicket.
A bowling change with V Parekh taking over at the field end he bowled Pollard for 38 and Sam Hickinbottom for 40.
The Cropston innings progressed towards 200, Daniel Hickinbottom scored 38 and Alex Thompson 35. From their 45 overs Cropston posted a score of 217 for the loss of 9 wickets.
In reply Loughborough were soon reduced to 16 for the loss of 3 wickets thanks to a diving catch in the slips by Joe Pollard from the bowling of Alfie Loakes, who next ball removed Harvey Uppal caught at the wicket by Max Lewin. Loughborough captain Simon Wilson 38 and Steve Franklin 25 attempted to rebuild the innings but Cropston continued to chip away with accurate bowling and good ground fielding.
Coming on as fifth bowler Sam Hickinbottom cleaned up the innings bowling 4 overs taking 2 wickets for 4 runs, as Loughboroguh were all out for 142.
Other Cropston bowlers amongst the wickets Justin Earl 3 for 29 from 8 overs, Tom Palmer 1 for 36 from 7 overs and Dan Hickinbottom 2 for 24 from 10 overs.
Cropston top the league in this early part of the season ,with the chasing pack only a few points behind.