Clipstone win again to edge closer to top flight survival target

And senior player Ian Woodall thinks they are possibly now only three wins away from their pre-season target after promotion of survival in the top flight.

“I think we are joint fourth at the moment, which is brilliant,” he said.

“But if you lose a game then you go joint fourth from bottom, so it's going to be tight this year and I think we need a few more wins.

“I think we probably need another three wins to make sure we stay in this league next year.

“We head for Papplewick on Saturday full of confidence and fancy our chances. They totally outclassed us at our ground but I don't think they will have their Notts players back with them.

“It was a really good game on Saturday and we had to dig in – Plumtree are a good side. But we pulled it through

“We said before the game, on that wicket we would be looking for 220-250 if we batted first to give us a good chance if we also bowled well, and we made 226.

“Chris Fletcher batted really well and there were others who chipped in with 20s and 30s.

“We were satisfied and we thought it was a challenging score.

“Then Maaz Shetch bowled really well again - he is managing to take wickets in his first spell which gives us every chance.

“They had a couple of players bat well, but we turned to spin - we only picked one seamer as we knew that wicket would start to turn – and we slowed it all down and it paid off.

“It ebbed and swayed near the end when Connor Limrick came in and smacked five sixes. But Maaz came back with two overs left and bowled him out which was a massive plus.”

Choosing to bat first, Clipstone made 226-7, Chris Fletcher with a captain's innings of 62.

Yash Ramesh scored 34, Adam Dutton 41 and Shaun Levy 25, Fletcher and Levy putting on 52 for the fourth wicket and Fletcher and Ramesh going one better with 53 for the sixth wicket.

Callum Dring claimed 3-26 from his 10 overs.

Plumtree were then bowled out for a round 200 in 42.4 overs, Sam King making 37 and Limrick 36.

At 146-7 Plumtree looked like they would finish well short – but a partnership of 48 by Ishraj Jandu and Limrick took it closer to what might have been a nailbiting end.

Sheth was Clipstone's bowling hero with 5-27 with one maiden from 9.4 overs while Ramesh backed him up well with 3-35.

Second-placed Cuckney stayed in pursuit of table-topping Cavaliers & Carrington as they beat Attenborough by six wickets at home.

The visitors chose to bat and were all out for 198 in 48.1 overs.

At 40-4 and 93-5 they were struggling badly but Rafay Ahmed struck a defiant 121, including 13 fours and a six.

Joe Worrall ended with figures of 4-35 in 9.1 overs.

Cuckney reached 200-4 in 41.3 overs, Tom Ullyott (71) and Eliot Callis (65) sharing in a 125 second wicket stand that set them firmly on course, Yuvrak Singh ending up 27 not out.

Cavaliers also won so the gap between the top two remains just two points.

“We lost the toss on a new wicket so thought we might be in for a bit of a long day in the field,” said Cuckney vice-captain Tom Ullyott.

“But we took some early wickets with the new ball and getting their top four batters out early really helped.

“Ahmed batted really nicely for his 121, but I don't think they had any other scores over 25 so it wasn't too damaging and we felt 199 was very gettable on that kind of surface.

“We did lose an early wicket, but we rebuilt and in the end it was fairly comfortable on a decent track.”

Bottom side Welbeck were sunk by 90 runs at Notts & Arnold Amateur.

The home side compiled a score of 237-9 in their 50 overs after winning the toss.

Josh Mierkalns struck 50, Gurman Heran 42, Zahid Mansoor 32 and Arnav Jumie 26 while Mat Roberts took 4-61.

In reply, Welbeck wickets fell with regularity as they faltered on 96-7 and were eventually dismissed for 147 in 40.1 overs.

Head coach Richard Stroh scored 45 but found partners hard to retain.

Dulina Mudalige 4-39 and Sam Kaye 3-24 took the bulk of the wickets.

“We didn't bowl or field very well,” said Stroh.

“I think over the last six to eight weeks we have only let the opposition score over 200 once, so we knew this would be an uphill task on a very tricky wicket.

“Then it was not a great batting performance from us either – we just weren't at the races,

“It's not great when you are bottom of the table and we need to find a winning formula really quickly.

“The second half of the season is going to have to be a really strong one for us.”

This Saturday Welbeck head for Hucknall, Cuckney are away at Notts & Arnold Amateur and Clipstone travel to Papplewick & Linby.