Positive Weekend For Club
On Saturday the 1stXI made the trip to 2015 Premier League champions Bracebridge Heath and were able to include Sri Lankan Test player Prassana Jayawardene in their line up for the first time this season.
Skipper Jack Luffman won the toss and elected to bowl and may have been ruing his decision at the half way point of the home side’s innings when the score stood at 151-1. Spa hadn’t performed badly but were lacking some luck. However, the side regrouped and managed to restrict BBH to a gettable 257-9. Connor Parsons was the star of the bowling effort finishing with figures of 4-75 from 15 overs, in fact he had bowled the final 10 overs from one end claiming all of his four wickets in this spell. He was well supported in this period by Coach Paul Timby (2-48) and by the fielders with Ross Dixon outstanding throughout and Chris Anderson claiming three outfield catches.
In reply, Spa’s innings got off to the worst possible start with openers Luffman (0) and Jayawardene (8) both back in the pavilion. From 11-2 the innings needed some rebuilding and at the half way stage the Spa had crept up to 65-5, a long way off batting points and three quarters of the home side’s score to try and secure losing draw points. However, Tanveer Sikander was playing a superb anchor role from number four. His ability to milk the spinners and quickness to punish any bad ball meant he passed his half-century. He found an ally in Dixon who played a typically aggressive innings of 21 and on his dismissal Sikander went past the 100 mark with another straight driven six. He was to lose his wicket for a fine 113 and it was left to the last wicket of Parsons (0 not out) and JP Prinsloo (0 not out) to see out the remaining three overs. The Spa finished on a fighting 205-9 and secured a total of 11 points for the losing draw.
At home the 2ndXI were involved in another high scoring affair against Billingborough. Batting first the visitors amassed 257-6 with Brown and Garfoot scoring half-centuries. In reply, the home side were in some trouble at 30-4 but the experienced Mark Irving and young Henry Wilson established a solid partnership. Irving lost his wicket in the 40s but Wilson continued to play nicely and together with skipper Pete Jackson began to threaten an unlikely victory. Wilson was finally dismissed for a classy 66 and Jackson also notched his first half-century of the season as his side fell just 29 runs short of victory.
On Sunday, the Wanderers 2ndXI played its first game of the season in the group stages of the league cup competition. Pete Epton’s side, now in Division 2, faced Morton of Division 1. Batting first the 2ndXI posted a total of 138-8 from 40 overs. The innings was mainly built around an innings of 63 from Henry Wilson. JP Prinsloo (19) and Adam Barker (11) made useful contributions but run scoring against a tight and experienced attack became difficult for the home side. In reply, Morton were equally impressive with the bat and passed the winning line for the loss of just one wicket inside 25 overs. Wilson taking the only wicket to fall.
On Monday, the 1stXI travelled to Lindum for the first round of the Premier League T20 competition to take on their hosts and Boston. In the first game, and the only game to reach a full conclusion, Spa batted first and posted 151-4 from 20 overs. The innings was built around an entertaining 99-run partnership between Joe Irving (49 from 42 balls) and Chris Anderson (68 not out from 50 balls). Both batsmen ran well between the wickets and each hit a maximum. It was total that was always going to be challenging particularly with the extremely slow outfield and so it proved with Spa soon reducing the home side to 19-5. A well executed run-out by Henry Wilson and captain Jack Luffman accounted for the first wicket, Irving struck and then it was left-arm seamer Sam Cherry who took the heart out of the Lindum middle-order with a spell of 3-11 from his four overs. Spa were well in the driving seat and despite some resilience from the lower order finally bowled out the home side for 100.
The weather then played its part so no other full games were played meaning a bowl off in the nets ensued. Five bowlers, two balls each at a set of stumps. Boston beat Lindum so the winner of Spa v Boston would go through to finals day at Sleaford CC on Monday 30th May. Luffman won the toss and elected to go first and in the shape of Matthew Haslam got off to a flying start with the experienced spinner showing he was up for the battle hitting two out of two; Boston’s Elleray hit one and then Ross Dixon hit one out of his two – Spa led 3-1. This is how it stayed until Boston’s skipper Tom Baxter hit one of his two efforts as did former Spa player Jonny Cheer with the final ball of the bowl out to make it 3-3 and take it to sudden death. The same five bowlers now had one go each. Haslam narrowly missed, as did Elleray for Boston, Dixon then hit and Boston couldn’t reply so a final score line of 4-3 meant Spa took two wins from the day and will now play Louth in the second semi-final later this month.
The juniors also had a very good weekend too. On Sunday, the under-10s beat Grantham by 129 runs. Spa batted first and posted a net score of 300. Will Henson top scoring with 18. In fact the team only lost two wickets in the whole innings. In reply, Grantham scored a net total of minus 171 as the Spa bowlers were in fine form with Ollie Clarke, Rowan Hackett, Freddie Roberts and Henry Cobb all taking two wickets each.
On Monday evening the under-11s hosted Barkston & Syston and came out winners by 40 runs. Batting first the home side scored 75-2 from 16 overs with Ollie Clarke and Miles Galbraith both reaching the 20 run retirement mark. In reply, the visitors finished 35-7 with Jacob Hall claiming two wickets.
Stand-in 2ndXI skipper Pete Jackson scored a half-century in his sides narrow defeat.
Henry Wilson scored 66 and 63 over the weekend.
May 3, 2016 12:00 am