Alrewas cash in on catch-up game
THE weather meant all but one of Saturday’s matches in Greenhouse Café Division One were abandoned mid-contest.
But the rain relented on Sunday to allow Alrewas to take over in second place, beating Sawley by 115 runs to make the most of their game in hand on their closest rivals for the second promotion spot, Rolleston.
Matt Frend (55), Stephen Cole (60) and Ben Foley (58) took Alrewas to 230 all out, recovering from 23-3 as Renaldo Holder (3-53) and Muhammad Atif (4-47) again proved a handful.
Only Riccardo Small-Boyce (35) caused Alrewas problems with the bat, however, with Frend (4-39) sending Sawley to 115 all out.
The only match on Saturday played to a conclusion saw Cutthorpe tie with Duffield.
Duffield scored 243-6 from their 50 overs led by Jack Wyatt (75) and David Whiteley (58), with late wickets for Dan Nelis (3-42).
The DL Method reduced Cutthorpe’s target to 163 off 40 overs and though Ben Kingham (61 not out) and Hashen Ramanayake (64 not out) took their side agonisingly close with an unbroken stand of 111, they closed on 162-1.
Only 27 overs were possible in Dunstall’s game at home to Sawley on Saturday – but they were enough for opening batsman Jamie Benstead to become the club’s all-time leading run scorer.
Benstead’s 43 not out as Dunstall reached 87-0 ahead of the rain took him past the 20,124 runs that current groundsman Geoff Shilton racked up in a long career of 854 innings for the club.
Benstead has reached 20,140 a little quicker, in 505 innings, and along the way there have been 122 halfcenturies and 35 centuries, comfortably in excess of anyone else’s tally.