With the sun beating down on Denton Road, Horton had no hesitation in batting first after winning the toss. This appeared to be a poor decision, after a series of poor shots and tight bowling by the visitors had Horton 54-6 in the 24th over. Akshat Adhikari and Anvit Arkanath (33) led the resistance, putting on 64 for the 7th wicket. When Anvit was dismissed, Akshat found support in Harvey Burton. Aks would make a fine 59, before he was finally removed. Ben Meachem would then play a cameo, making an important 12 in a 10th wicket partnership of 44 with Harvey Burton the last man standing on 35* - a fine knock to get Horton to 197.

The runs were never enough, and Horton’s bowlers struggled to find the consistency that had served Loddington so well. Meachem (1-27) got one to lift to take out one of the openers, and Smith (1-44) removed the overseas but the visiting batsmen rarely looked troubled. Karan Parmer (1-44) grabbed a late wicket to get Horton another point but Loddington reached the total with ease in the 37th.

2nd XI vs. Irchester CC 1st XI

The 2’s travelled to Irchester for our 12th Match of the season. Having lost the toss we were asked to field first on a hot day. Having asked for another professional and ruthless performance to keep our winning momentum going, this is exactly what all the team did for short time we were in the field. All of our bowlers were outstanding and there were wickets for Rory Monk (4), Tom Hodgkinson (3), Steve Finch (2) and Harvey Cooke (1). We managed to bowl Irchester out for 74 in the 19th Over.

We set about chasing 74 with Craig Reilly and Finn Herrington opening the innings. Craig and Finn put on a solid 55 for the first wicket. We reached our winning target in the 13th over, 2 wickets down. Finn (39 no) and Craig (18). This win meant that the 2’s have now won 9 out of our 12 league games so far this season.

3rd XI vs. Weekley & Warkton CC 3rd XI

Ian Street took 5-21 as the 3s bowled out the opposition for 108. Sai Ravikumar would score 40* as the 3s passed the total for the loss of only two wickets.

4th XI vs. S&L Corby CC 4th XI

It was going to be another hot one today at the Bozeadome – and the track looked an absolute belter. Apparently, it was meant for the 3s but was marked out so the Legends said “Rude not to”. But another massive thank you to Harry Mowat, Josh Gould and Uncle Faruook for preparing such a great wicket to play on – especially in this hot weather and the lack of irrigation at Bozeat.

In a slight rare event this season, the Legends lost the toss and the S & L Captain without any hesitation decided to bat – which left us about to roast in the midday sun. That being said we did have a cool breeze which meant that Harry Farbone and Harry Street could start a devastating spell of bowling. Bowling in tandem, it was Farbone that got the 3 opening wickets of the dangerous Laknath Rajasiri and their skipper Gary Harrison. It would have been 4 as his pace knocked a young batsman onto the floor and his bat onto the stumps – and we had to make the call to appeal or not. In the end it was decided not to appeal and keep the embers of the “spirit of cricket” alive in division 14 of the NCL. With only one of the Gallagher twins in the team this week, there was no excuse to get his name wrong. Henry/ Will/ Harry/ Gary – the hapless captain called him all those names – got into the action and with some excellent catches in the deep from John Jesu started making inroads into the S & L middle order. The final pair from Corby looked like they were strong enough to push on the total – dealing on only 6s and 4s – but Henry’s bowling put that to bed as the No 10 gunslinger flat-batted it to short-mid wicket. S & L ended on 68 all out.

With the chase on, sometimes the smallest totals are the hardest and it seemed that what S & L lacked in batting the made up for in bowling with some very strong opening pace options. With that being said Harry Street and Henry Gallagher got us of to a quick start with Sandeep Patel (15) and Adam Willis (20*) getting the job done in 13 overs with Jeremy Jesu (4*) finishing the game with a stylish flick-off his pads.

It was a great win today, but even better to see how well we fielded today and kept to the task at hand at all stages of the game. Thanks to Tracey Street for keeping all the teams hydrated and for Richard Gallagher for scoring – which helps the day run so smoothly. See you all at training !!!