Thursday 26 May 2016

Nocton Cricket Club - Match Report

Nocton CC v Hykeham - Sunday 22nd May 2016

Nocton won by 7 wickets

Last Thursday’s weather forecast promised non-stop rain for our area on Sunday so pitch preparation was made with no confidence at all. In the event it was a beautiful afternoon, Nocton won the toss and decided to bowl first. We have a pretty impressive record against Hykeham but the start we made in this game caught a lot of us by surprise – especially me! I turned up at 2.15 to start taking photographs and analysing the match. When I arrived Hykeham were already 10 for 4 thanks to Mikey Atkinson’s aggressive bowling and 2 run outs by Miles Lynch and Isaac Appleyard. No batter from the visiting team had the chance to settle in and runs were very slow coming as the Nocton fielders were really sharp. Nearly all the bowlers chipped in with a wicket but Paul Carrott, bowling his off breaks as third change, bowled an excellent line and really turned the ball as well taking 3 wickets in just 11 balls. In less than 24 overs Hykeham were all out for just 43 runs. Both teams had a very early tea!!

Skipper Dylan Garfoot changed the Nocton batting order quite a bit to give some of the others a chance to bat but a target of 44 was never going to be difficult and Mikey Atkinson was the only batter to make double figures (12*) in the whole game. He hit the winning runs to end the game with Nocton at 44-3 after just 9 overs. So, after winning all three of their cup matches Nocton are in the semi-finals on the Major Hoult Cup for the first time in … well, ages! Not sure who we’ll be playing against but it will be an away game on July 10th. There are no matches now for 2 weeks then we have 3 home games in a row on June 19th, 26th and July 3rd against Ancaster, Reepham and Horncastle respectively.

You may find Nocton players and committee members trying to sell you raffle tickets in the next month. This will be our main fund raiser of the year and we certainly need all the financial help we can get so please support the club by buying a ticket or two (or more!).

Report and photographs courtesy of Jonathan Sides


Plate 1 - The bails fly as Rob Appleyard bowls Ciaran Elliott of Hykeham


Plate 2 - Nocton close fielders looking sharp


Plate 3 - Jordan Brown mishits a ball from Paul Carrott. It went a long way up…


Plate 4 - ...and came down into the safe hands of Miles Lynch


Plate 5 - An amusing moment between Dylan and Miles


Plate 6 - Mikey Atkinson leading the Nocton batters
towards a comfortable victory

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