Willoughby VS Mears Ashby

A warm sunny morning down The Green where Willoughby waited for the arrival of Mears Ashby. Skipper Ben Hollis lost the toss and was asked to bat first.

Hassan Nawaz ( 13 ) and Callum Hanks opened up and looked to make a positive start. Mears Ashby choose to open with spinner Adil Mahmood who caused us big issues with some serious turn. Nawaz, Ashley Rayner (4)and Chait Kurusala (5) all falling victims to him early on which saw us struggling. Michael Deery ( 20 ) joined Hanks and looked good before chopping on and Hanks (29) shortly after being trapped LBW which saw Willoughby pegged back to 67-7. Dave Alcock and Ben Hollis were in and looked to steady the ship and keep the score board ticking over, Hollis (23) the more aggressive batsmen hit some nice shots and gave Mears Ashby something to think about while Alcock was holding up a end picking up easy singles and punishing the bad ball. Hollis was caught in the deep which saw Scott Cluley into the attack. Alcock and Cluley put together a wonderful partnership and saw Willoughby over 200. Alcock made a superb 46 including some nice pull shots and some tense stare downs before missing a full a toss and was out LBW. Mark Fell added 8 runs and was caught, Rees Moor the last batsmen supported Cluley until Cluley was caught behind for a well made 48 including 1 huge 6 which caused a scene off the fielding smashing a window. Willoughby all out 219. A great team recovery from our early wobble with the bat, capitalised on their poor fielding and made the most of the catches they put down.

Callum Hanks and Mark Fell got things under way with the ball. Both bowlers got the ball swinging early on and limited Mears Ashby to scoring runs. Fell manged to pick his first wicket trapping Mears Ashby skipper LBW for a steady 15 47-1. The league top run scorer was in next for Mears Ashby Billy Bruce who has always struggled to get runs against us. Rees Moor 41-1 and Scott Cluley were brought into the attack and Bruce struggled to get going throwing his bat and playing and missing. After a fine bit of fielding from Ambrose Deery and Ben Hollis, Hollis got a direct hit and Bruce was walking 89-2. The pressure was building was the run rate was climbing every over, Chait Kurusala and Dave Alcock were brought into the attack for a short spell to get through the overs quickly and keep the pressure on. Kurusala got his name in the book in his third over removing Greg Reis 133-4. Cluley 32-1 was brought back into the attack and removed their danger man with what could only be described as a perfect yorker. The energy and chat in the field was high and our confidence was growing every over, Michael Deery took a superb catch at cow corner and Scott Cluley took another fine catch on the boundary rope which came out the sky with snow on. Fell 26-2 and Hanks 39-3 made light work of Mears Ashby tail and mopped up the tail. Mears Ashby all out 180.

With a few key players missing this weekend we knew it was going to a tough game. Everyone stepped up and showed we wanted to win and showed we had the fight in the tank. A great standard of cricket all round from everyone recovering from 67-7 to 219 all out, bowling tight and fielding well we truly deserved the win. Another huge win which takes us to unbeaten 9 games on the bounce. We welcome Yelvertoft to The Green next weekend.