Double blow as Cuckney lose league top spot and exit national cup

A weekend to forget for Cuckney saw them lose Nottinghamshire Premier League top spot after a surprise defeat at Hucknall before exiting the Royal London National Club Championship at Sandiacre Town on Sunday.
George Buckthorpe loses his middle stump to Cuckney's Codi Yusuf.George Buckthorpe loses his middle stump to Cuckney's Codi Yusuf.
George Buckthorpe loses his middle stump to Cuckney's Codi Yusuf.

Hucknall pulled out of the bottom two with their 60-run victory while at Sandiacre, Connor Marshall's 67 not out eased the home side to a seven wicket win.

Cuckney made 183 all out at Longmoor Lane with 52 for Joseph Hayes, 39 for Codi Yusuf and 30 for Paul Van Meekeren.

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Sandiacre then reached 187-7 with seven balls to spare, Marshall backed by Luke Thomas on 40 and Chris McIlroy with 27.

“It was quite a rough weekend for us – and Saturday kind of set the tone,” said captain Richard Bostock. “We didn't perform that well on Saturday and got what we deserved and then in the Sunday game we fought pretty well all day and just got the rough side of a result where one lad's ended up winning it for them at the end.”

On Saturday, Hucknall set an impressive total of 212 all out, Hassan Chaudry scoring 30, Sam Johnson 43, and Josh Bembridge 24, Paul Van Meekeren with 3-25 and Codi Yusif with 3-51.

After a disastrous start, quickly losing their top three batsmen, Cuckney rallied with 37 for Hayes, 31 for Tom Keast and 27 for Van Meekeren, Jake Wright claiming 4-18 and Adam Scott 3-39, as they were all out for 152 in 43.3 overs.

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“It looked a good wicket and we wanted to bat first, but they won the toss,” said Bostock.

“Maybe we just weren't mentally in the chase batting second and that was ultimately our downfall. When we assessed the wicket we didn't want to be chasing anything more than 180.

“We dropped a couple of key wickets, most notably their captain Sam Johnson on around 10 and he went on to get 43. At 6-3 after two overs you won't win many games from that position. But all credit to Hucknall, they put in a performance and really did a job on us.”

This weekend Cuckney have a chance for revenge over Hucknall on Saturday before clashing with bottom club Mansfield Hosiery Mills in the big local derby.