Chris Dibley and Max Pritchard

Match report by B Anthony

A depleted Flintham First Team Squad of only 10 men, travelled to Nottingham to take on the promotion hopefuls Ellerslie First XI.

Winning the toss, and choosing to bat first, saw openers James Taylor and Max Pritchard take to the crease.

A solid start until Taylor fell to the bowling of Toby Smith at the start of the seventh over.

Flintham’s Tom Southall came in and scored 15 of the 19 balls he faced.

The next four batters then supported Max Pritchard as he continued to strike the ball well.

He was particularly well supported by Chris Dibley who scored 53 off the 38 balls he faced.

Unfortunately, they both fell in consecutive overs and the tail in this instance “did not wag”.

Pritchard scored 130 off 98 balls.

Flintham were all out for 262 in the 40^th Over.

Under the Division A rules the remaining unused overs are given to the opposition so their target was 263 in 60 overs.

Four of their five opening batters achieved respectable scores, with both Arthur Gray (73) and Ali Abbas (50) achieving half-centuries.

The game was won in the 43^rd over which took Ellerslie to the top of the Division in the South Notts league.

The most economic Flintham bowling figures were recorded by Matthew Isherwood, who conceded just 19 runs in his six overs.

Max Pritchard took three of the Ellerslie wickets but conceded 64 runs in his 8.2 overs.

At home in Inholms Garden, Flintham 2^nd XI managed to salvage a comfortable victory by 45 runs from the jaws of defeat against Gedling and Sherwood.

Graham Lockwood – 101 not out

Finding themselves in the perilous position of 80 for seven in the 17^th of 40 overs, Graham Lockwood batting brilliantly for 101 not out and marshalled the tail to a competitive 194 all out.

Flintham’s opening bowlers, Ben Wilsher and James Hazzledine, then produced fantastic opening spells to leave the batting side with a mountain to climb having only mustered 45 for three off their first 20 overs.

Mention must also be made of Robin Cook who at the age of 78 followed his excellent rear-guard action batting as last man then to bowl 10 overs taking two wickets for 42 runs.