BASSETLAW LEAGUE ROUND-UP: Farnsfield hot on the heels of leaders Papplewick

Fiery Farnsfield kept up the pressure on leaders Papplewick and Linby with a convincing victory over bottom-of-the-table Worksop in The Championship of the Bassetlaw League.
TAYLOR-MADE DEFIANCE -- batsman Harry Taylor tries to salvage Worksops innings in their heavy defeat against Farnsfield in The Championship.TAYLOR-MADE DEFIANCE -- batsman Harry Taylor tries to salvage Worksops innings in their heavy defeat against Farnsfield in The Championship.
TAYLOR-MADE DEFIANCE -- batsman Harry Taylor tries to salvage Worksops innings in their heavy defeat against Farnsfield in The Championship.

Farnsfield, who are clearly determined to return to the Notts Premier League, from where they were relegated last season, eased home by eight wickets after dismissing the home side for just 80.

Deadly duo Joseph Worrall and Callum McKenzie inflicted most of the damage, completing highly efficient spells and ending up with identical bowling figures of four wickets for the loss of only 13 runs. Dave Loveridge (2-29) also helped himself to a couple of wickets.

Almost half of Worksop’s runs were scored by one player, number six bat Andrew Stoneman, who hit 39 before becoming one of McKenzie’s victims. Farnsfield’s reply was academic as they sauntered to their target inside 12 overs, despite losing McKenzie for 23 and Matthew Sisson for 16.

Papplewick remain top of the pile after taking maximum points from a low-scoring rout of near-neighbours Notts and Arnold Amateurs, who are still waiting for their first outright victory of the new season.

Amateurs must have fancied their chances of an upset when rolling out the home side for just 100. Incredibly, the last eight wickets fell for only 38 runs as terrific bowling by Scott Leivers (4-20), Jordan Finney (3-34) and Craig Harrison (3-43) left Sam Ogrizovic’s troops reeling.

However, the visitors capitulated themselves to 57 all out in 24.2 overs. Evergreen seamer Jim Rhodes was the home hero with exceptional figures of 7-13 and the division’s best individual bowling performance of the weekend.

Third place in the table is occupied by Clipstone Welfare after a winning draw in an entertaining clash with Edwinstowe. The key was a formidable total of 258-4, which included a solid knock of 75 from the ever-present Lee Wilson, a half-century by David Willcock (55) and further strong contributions from Taylor Wright (38no) and Craig Brittlebank (37).

For Edwinstowe, all-rounder Yashan Samarasinghe tried all he knew to fight back, taking 3-70 with the ball and following up with an innings of 70 as his side made a brave fist of their reply. They just fell short, however, on 226-7 as Amory Holder took 4-74 for Clipstone.

Thoresby Colliery are not far behind the leaders in fourth, but appeared to be saved by the rain in a weather-affected draw against Glapwell Colliery. After making 195, with Mitchell English hitting 79, they were on the receiving end of a Glapwell reply that read 151-3 when the heavens opened. The visitors’ star performers were bowlers Joseph Stone (4-45), Matthew Page (3-25) and Tom Newcombe (3-62) and batsmen Stephen Gooding (45no), Luke Smith (45) and Danny Bircumshaw (32).

Elsewhere, Retford enjoyed their first outright win of the campaign when overhauling North Wheatley with Leverton’s score of 191-5 for the loss of only three wickets.