Midweek XI overcome Ashby

Ashby St Ledgers welcomed our Midweek XI to Barby Cricket Club for this Div 3 clash with our friendly neighbours.
Willoughby won the toss and with one eye on the light elected to bat on the plastic on Barby's "Little Pitch."
For those of you who don't know Barby's 2nd pitch has almost normal boundaries on the off and leg sides but straight down the ground is very short meaning that straight sixes are common.
Sean Thornton and Ian Button started the Willoughby Innings and took the score to 42 in 6 overs with some fine hitting, mostly from Sean (5 4's & 1 6), who managed to hog the strike. Sean was then caught for 33 and Ian bowled for 5 by Burdett but they had done a good job of getting some runs on the board.
Ben Hollis didn't trouble the scorers too much, holing out to Frost for 2 on the shortest boundary. It seems that even Barby's ground is a bit big for him :) Maybe his little Mongoose would be better? :)
Simon Nicholls came out to join Richard Foxon with the score on 44/3 and they managed to dig in for a partnership of exactly 100. They ran 1s and 2s off the good balls and punished the bad balls with boundaries aplenty and the score and run rate gradually climbed. Si Nicholls chipped in with 28, including 4 4's before Rich's backing up let him down and he left the striker stranded in the middle chasing a quick single that my one-legged grandma could have run! (I would have put it down as a wicket to Foxon in play cricket but the software wouldn't let me!)
However, Rich was in particularly good form with the bat and carrying on from his 91 not out against Newbold B in the cup he hit 8 4's and 9 sixes on his way to a fantastic 105 from 54 balls! In keeping with our new policy of not telling batsmen that they are approaching 50's or 100's he was on 99 for the last ball and fortunately launched it over mid wicket for 6!
"Good job I didn't dead bat it!" he complained as he walked off.
"As if!" came the reply from his team-mates!
Willoughby finished with their highest score of the season 189 for 4 from their 20 overs. A great batting display!

In reply Sean Thornton and Simon Nicholls opened the Willoughby bowling attack and Ashby quickly reached 37 before the opener, Shaw, ran himself out on 18 after a mix up in the middle. Simon Nicholls then bowled the next batsman, Hinde, for a duck and a wicket maiden before John Gregson had Chapman caught for 29 by Richard Foxon out on the short long on boundary. Patrick McDonnell, Hassan Nawaz and Kishan Parmar all bowled well as Willoughby rotated the bowling attack but the score continued to rise despite Patrick bowling Burdett for 17 and Ben Hollis chipping in to take the wicket of Robinson for 6. This brought Ashby Captain, Shane Mackay and Wright to the crease with the score on 94 for 5 in the 12th over. With the required run rate at 12 an over it was always going to be a tough ask of the Ashby batsmen and Willoughby had set the field well back in the fading light. Richard Foxon entered the fray and he and Ben Hollis bowled fairly well but were still going for 10 an over. It fell to Sean Thornton to rein Ashby in with them needing 36 from the last 2 overs and Sean only went for 7 runs. Even Rich Foxon wasn't going to go for 29 in his last over and managed to restrict them to 10 for a comfortable win in the end by 19 runs.
Another great all round batting and bowling display and a pleasure to be part of and watch Richard Foxon hit a remarkable Century - even if it was a little pitch!

Well done lads!