Friday 29 April 2016

Nocton Cricket Club - Match Report

Nocton CC v Bracebridge Heath 2nd team, Sunday April 24th

A beautiful setting for village cricket
This was the first game of the season for Nocton, last week’s fixtures were cancelled due to waterlogged pitches all over the county! There is a really good team spirit amongst the players at the start of this season; they all pulled together to make sure the pitch and square were good enough and we had a full team of 11 players under new skipper Dylan Garfoot.

Nocton’s wickets are always unpredictable and this one was no exception. Fast bowling wasn’t needed and both Dylan Garfoot and Mikey Atkinson reverted to spin. Bracebridge’s opener, Ollie Bentley, is always a dangerous batsman and has scored heavily against us in the past but Atkinson removed him without scoring. The rest of the Bracebridge team batted very cautiously, played few attacking shots and scored hardly any boundaries (mind you, the grass was a bit long near the boundaries!). They only made it to 60 all out after 32 overs with the wickets being shared equally amongst the Nocton bowlers.

A near miss for Mikey Atkinson
David Franklin, our wicketkeeper all last season, reminded us that he bowls some tidy leg spinners and took 2 late wickets for no runs. The Nocton innings showed that runs CAN be scored on our track. Rather than watching to see what the ball would do, Dylan Garfoot simply walked down towards the bowler, met the ball as it pitched and hit it with immense power making 42* mainly in sixes and fours. His final six, to win the match, soared over the outfield, the boundary and the 12 foot high hedge into the field beyond. Game over in 47 balls!

Skipper Dylan Garfoot in full swing, another 6
Mikey Atkinson and Paul Carrot treated the bowling in the same way. It was a great start to the season even though it was numbingly cold! You would be very welcome to come and join us at any home game; a list of home games appears in the Nocton News. Our next home games are May 15th against Rustons in the cup competition and May 22nd against Hykeham in the league.

Congratulations for Isaac Appleyard

Paul Carrot pulls to the boundary
Match report and photographs - Jonathan Sides

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