Nuthurst beat Lingfield at The Common

We welcomed a side we hadn't played for a few years due to Brunswick pulling out late notice and this turned into a very fine day of Sunday cricket. As there is no mention of Graham Prior's 1000th wicket in the title you are correct in assuming he is not there yet!

For once or maybe twice this season Nuthurst did the unusual feat of batting first. With a very youthful Lingfield and not very youthful Nuthurst it was a young opening bowling partnership for Lingfield. With L Pilkington going for 3 runs off his 1st 3 over's which included 2 maidens and S McInnis only going for 8 it was a slow but steady start by Nuthurst with Dave Butcher and Jonny Willis opening the batting. In the 7th over with the score on 14 Dave Butcher was bowled for 4 off Pilkington. That bought Captain Bob to the crease to form the solid foundations with Jonny to get Nuthurst up to a competitive total and allowing the remaining batters a free swing or run out! Bob played some lovely shots in his 42 but when he went to open up was bowled by a slower delivery. With a now changed batting line up due to the match situation as Bob's wicket was in the 26th over, late stand in Darren Williams came in and played a lovely knock for 22. Although before this and not that I was going to forget our opener Jonny Willis reached his century 102, before retiring. So Darren then run out Tristan still on 0 before being run out himself off Keith Greenwood's calling!! Keith on 14 was then bowled leaving Jeremy James 6no and David Thompson 3no to finish off the innings with Nuthurst finishing on 216-5 off 40 overs.

Now to get Chippy to 1,000 wickets (or not) With Graham Prior on 997 club wickets surely he could get to the milestone today! The opening batters for Lingfield certainly knew what they were doing with some lovely drives and plenty of gap finding the 216 set by Nuthurst could be an achievable target. Raggy was stand in wicket keeper for the day and did an excellent job as 3rd choice! But with Lingfield getting a few early runs their opener M Webster went airborne with cry's from all around the ground of Jonty that's yours who was watching it closely but with no intent on taking the catch our one and only youthful player of the day Tristan Dauncey came running in full belt and took a superb catch or catch of the day to get Graham to 998 wickets. Charlie Price bowling from the playground end then took the wicket of M Scrivener for 2 with a catch by David Thompson at mid wicket who is certainly not claiming catch of the day! Keith came on to replace Charlie and removed the other opener G Obrey for 36. Now wickets started to fall a bit more quickly and with Jeremy James replacing Graham started removing the middle order all bowled to finish with figures 2-3 having bowled 3 maidens in his 5 overs. This now meant that wickets were running out for Graham to achieve his 1,000th wicket. Now Tristan was into the bowling attack and after that stunning catch then shone with the ball as well taking another 2 wickets, both catches one taken nicely by Jeremy James, and one not so nicely, and having talked to Jonty about it, is calling it a sublime one handed catch that should be catch of the day, actually after fumbling the ball and after a bit of juggling claimed it with one hand! Sorry Jonty you are not claiming catch of the day! Dave Butcher was able to turn his arm over and although wicketless had a good tidy spell. Now with two wickets needed and two remaining, Charlie and Graham were now bowling but it was Charlie who took the penultimate wicket of the day. Graham did however wrap the victory up for Nuthurst by clean bowling S McInnis. Lingfield reaching 120 all out on what was another great game of Sunday cricket with both teams allowing everyone to have a game through batting and bowling and even wicket keeping (well done Raggy), but highlight of the day was the superb catch by Tristan followed by a lovely century by Jonny.

With most of the Lingfield team joining us at the Black Horse in Nuthurst to discuss amongst lots of things Cricket!