Worksop: Beard and Beard shine as Clumber prove too strong for Cavaliers

Clumber Park maintained their good recent form with a 128-run win over West Indian Cavaliers 2nd.

Batting first Clumber got off to a bad start when they lost opener Mark Dean for a duck as Cavaliers’ Jason Elliott produced a firey opening spell.

But the hosts soon settled into the task at hand and Dave Beard (52) set the tone with a fine half-century that included 12 boundaries.

Able support came Matt Wheatley (42), Gaz Beard (34) and Tim Foulds (33).

Any hopes Cavaliers had of pegging the hosts back in the closing stages were short lived as Chris Ward smashed three sixes and five fours in plundering 49 not out in the final few overs to see Clumber close on a sizeable 251-8.

Sunil Shrethsa was the pick of the visitor’ attack with 4-50, while Elliott finished with 2-33.

After Dave Beard had starred with the bat, it was the turn of Gaz Beard to lead by example with the ball as he produced a lively opening burst to leave the visitors’ reply on the back foot from the start.

Three of the Cavaliers’ top four fell for single figures and any hopes they had of turning things around were ended by recalled veteran seamer Simon Dean (3-30) who whipped out the middle order to leave them floundering.

Ayzaz Ilyas (38) resisted for a time but once he fell to Al Skinner (3-21), any hopes Cavaliers had of escaping with a draw were gone.

Skinner mopped up the tail to finish with 3-21.

The 20 points consolidated Clumber’s third place position in what is proving to be a tight and closely contested Division One.