Loughborough Town too good for defending champs
LOUGHBOROUGH Town are in a three way tie at the top of the Leicestershire and Rutland cricket league Premier Division table after a 71 run win over defending champions Sileby Town.
Loughborough won the toss and elected to bat but when captain and opening batsman Anish Patel was dismissed for 12 and fellow opener Charles Lowen followed soon after for a duck, the hosts found themselves struggling at 12-2.
The wickets kept falling but the innings was held together by a solid performance from Ashish Trusz who scored 130 runs before he was caught and bowled by Sileby captain Jigar Naik.
Loughborough were finally bowled out for 261 with Nathan Bowley the second highest scoring batsman with a knock of 32, Aaron Smith was the pick of the Sileby bowlers with figures of 4-39.
In reply, Sileby lost opener Jake Gillett for four with the score at 18-1 and were soon reduced to 36-4 before they recovered thanks to the batting of Mitchell Buck (39) and Brady Glennon (60) but when Glennon was out with the score at 167-9, Loughborough could see victory in their sights and despite a spirited 19 runs by number 10 Aaron Smith, Sileby were all out for 190 and four games into the season are still looking for their first league win as champions.
Joining Loughborough and Lutterworth at the top of the table are Barrow Town who beat hosts Market Harborough by 141 runs on Saturday.
Barrow batted first and made 292-8 with Jack Nightingale hitting 115 runs and Heath Pedrola scoring 61. In reply Market Harborough were whittled out for just 151 with Umar Afzal the pick of the Barrow bowlers claiming 4-30.
Elsewhere in the Premier Division there was also a seven wicket victory for Kegworth Town over Premier newboys Uppingham Town.
Uppingham batted first and made 194 all out, with Morgan Crimp the pick of the Kegworth bowlers claiming 3-22. In reply, Kegworth reached 197 with the loss of just three wickets, opener Adam Meads top scoring with 72. Kegworth are in fourth place in the league table, just one point behind the three co-leaders.