Notts Premier League round-up: Cuckney ease to victory as lead is consolidated

Batting first, the Academy were soon in trouble as alumnus Luke Wood grabbed three early victims, helping reduce his former team to 69 for 5.

Lyndon James and Anuj Dal set about recovering the situation, moving the score to 145 before Dal fell for 33. James went shortly after for 56 and the innings folded to 165 all out. Wood taking 3 for 20, James Hawley 3 for 27 and Trent Lawford a brace.

Cuckney’s chase was rarely troubled, Luke Thomas with 56 and Nick Langford seeing them home with 30 not out. Anis Raza claimed 3 for 50 while Liam Patterson-White weighed in with a couple of wickets.

West Indian Cavaliers remain in second spot, 18 points behind Cuckney after beating the defending champions by seven wickets.

Kimberley Institute batted first and despite 64 from Sam Johnson, could only muster 159 all out as all six Cavs bowlers claimed a wicket. Bilal Shafayat took 3 for 26 while Corey Collymore’s 3 cost 33 runs.

Dominic Brown reduced Cavs to 15 for 2 in reply, but Akhil Patel (68) and Adam Tillcock (65*) put on 135 for the third wicket to help them on their way.

Plumtree stay third, arresting a recent slide with a five wicket win at Clifton Village. The bottom side in the table made a solid start, reaching 152 for 2 with Scott McNeill making 60, Peter Vladev 44 and Martin Weightman 32.

Sam Wood’s intervention would prove crucial as the remaining eight wickets feel for just 48 runs, Wood taking 5 for 61, supplemented by a pair of victims for Nick Winter.

Plumtree made their target, five down, as all their batsmen made contributions. James Doherty top scored with an unbeaten 40 while Hassan Azad (37) and Saad Ashraf (36) got them off to a good start. Muhammed Usman’s 3 for 34 only served to slow them down.

Mansfield Hosiery Mills closed the gap on the top four, moving into a tie with the Academy as a result of their winning draw at home to Caythorpe.

MHM set a testing target of 276 for 8. An opening stand of 116 between Kamal Manek (43) and Matt New (68) set the platform, and with Mark Smallwood’s unbeaten 52 leading the rest of their batsmen the posted a daunting total.

Martyn Dobson with 3 for 62 and James Hindson 3 for 68 led the bowling resistance.

Caythorpe’s openers bettered their opposite numbers, compiling a 125 run stand, Dobson making 51 and Steve Allcoat 69. Only Mat Dowman (50) was able to push on though as Matt Wright (4 for 36) strangled the middle order, Caythorpe finishing on 234 for 7 to secure a draw.

Radcliffe-on-Trent were the big movers at the foot of the table after getting the best of their drawn game with Welbeck.

Only 35 from Rob Sutton saw Radcliffe to 55 for 4 as their innings got off to a poor start, but Connor Marshall (52) added 126 with Graeme White (82) as the hosts tallied 236 for 7, Nadeem Malik, Tom Lungley and Richie Bentley each grabbing two wickets.

Welbeck were in disarray at 18 for 3, but Lewis Cameron (38) steadied the ship with Richard Stroh, who would dominate the rest of the innings as he compiled 96 from the final tally of 203 for 8. Ben Savage continued to show the bowlers the way with 4 for 44.

In the other big game at the foot of the table, honours went to the visitors Ordsall Bridon. Hosts Hucknall were indebted to 52 from Josh Downie as they scrambled to 88 for 4, but Richard Greatorex with 88 became the centrepiece of the innings, assisted by 31 from Suhail Ahmed to steer Hucknall to 257 for 8.

Ordsall’s reply got off to a great start as Joshua Marsh (67) and Martyn Long (54) put on 136 for the opening wicket and Liam Andrews (41) and James Brice finishing not out on 31 were enough to see Bridon home for the loss of seven wickets.