Kimberley showdown on Saturday can put Cuckney closer to NPL title

Nottinghamshire Premier League leaders Cuckney know they can do their title hopes a power of good by beating major rivals Kimberley Institute at home on Saturday.
Nick Keast - led the scoring for Cuckney in Sunday's semi-final win.Nick Keast - led the scoring for Cuckney in Sunday's semi-final win.
Nick Keast - led the scoring for Cuckney in Sunday's semi-final win.

Cuckney stayed top thanks to a rain-affected win at Attenborough on Saturday and then fired a warning shot over Kimberley' s bows by beating them by three wickets on Sunday in the Derbyshire Premier Cup semi-final.

“It was good to get the win over the line on Saturday – we knew what we had to do again.” said assistant captain Richard Bostock.

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“Now it's a case we have two games left and if we beat Kimberley on Saturday that will put some daylight between us and we then have to try to beat Papplewick in the last game.

“We are aware that both Cavaliers and Kimberley have games in hand on us.

“However, one of those games is against each other so hopefully there can be a bit of damage either way to either side and it can pan out our way.

“We need to get the points on the board and put the pressure on them.

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At Attenborough James Hawley took 3-19 and Nicholas Keast 3-16 as they bowled out the home side for 122.

But the rain halted Cuckney's reply and eventually the game was settled via Duckworth-Lewis with the visitors making a match-winning 49-2 from their revised target.

“It was rain-affected but we just did enough,” said Bostock.

“We had to get 10 overs in in our innings to get Duckworth-Lewis involved and we did 10.1 overs, had enough runs and got maximum points.

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“It was the way it should have been on the day as we were much better than them. We bowled them out for 122 and we didn't see any troubles until the rain came.

“We felt it should have gone that way and were happy it did.”

On Sunday Cuckney set a total of 228-9 from their 40 overs.

Keast hit 41, Nick Langford 33, Bostock 30, Joseph Hayes 30 and Josh Porter 25 with Dominic Brown claiming 4-30.

Rain forced a revised total of 200 in 32 overs for Kimberley but they fell short at 155 all out in 30.3 overs. Brown scored 41 and Matty Taylor 25 with Archie Shannon taking 4-36.

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“We always like to make sure Kimberley are chasing a score,” said Bostock.

“We feel like that is their weakness to chase a score and it's certainly our strength to set one.

“It was good to get one over on them and reach the final. It certainly gives us the edge going into Saturday's league fixture as well.”