LUDDINGTON v ALKBOROUGH - AMAZING SMILE NORTH LINDSEY LEAGUE DIV TWO

BY GLEN SANDS

Luddington produced one of their best performances of the season on August 7th when they inflicted a first defeat for over a year on Alkborough in a North Lindsey League game played under 20/20 conditions.

Alkborough have had such a successful season that there were no Sundays available to play this game , rearranged from July so both teams agreed to play a midweek match , then Luddington found themselves without three regulars due to work committments but yet they still won a thrilling match as the players brought in blended well with their team mates rising to the occasion.. Joe Woolhouse and Ben Wicks , both only seventeen , opened for Ludd who took first knock and the former had made seven when he was caught by wicket keeper Dave Kilgallon off Liam Hebblewhite with the total on eleven. Graham Clark joined Wicks at the crease and they both played some handsome shots as the total rose to 46 , then Wicks was caught by Fred Warburton off Jake Astle fhaving hit an excellent 22. Vice captain Andy Lawson was next to head out to the middle and along with Clark took the game to Alkborough with some terrific batting. He had reached 20 when he was caught behind off Andy Williamson with the score standing at 91 and by the end of what was the 14th over Ludd had lost three more wickets as Alkborough fought back to take control of the innings. Clark was still there and saw Ludd to three figures before he became Williamson's fifth wicket , caught by Liam Hebblewhite for an invaluable 41 runs then skipper Gareth Parkin and Arron Curry produced a late flurry of runs to guide their team to 121 for 9 , Parkin hitting 10 including a giant six into the paddock on Park Lane and Curry 12 not out. Young Andy Williamson understandably took the plaudits as he left the field for his bowling spell of four overs 5 for 26.

Openers Dave Kilgallon and Alex Jenkins got Alkborough off to a very good start , putting on 58 for the first wicket before Jenkins was stumped by Gareth Parkin off Arron Curry for 30 but by then half the allotted overs had passed which gave Luddington hope if they could hold their nerve. VK Raj , who has scored hundreds of runs for Alkborough this season joined Kilgallon and they took the score to 80 when Kilgallon was bowled by Graham Clark for 26 when trying to giude the ball to leg in order to give the strike to Raj and with overs passing by Alkborough were beginning to realise they needed to up the pace. At this point skipper Parkin and vice captain Andy Lawson pulled off a master stroke when they introduced Matt Grimbleby to the attack. Although not a regular bowler he always has the ability to bowl a tight line and that meant the batsmen needed to take more risks in order to push the score along. Andy Williamson was caught by Rick Green off Grimbleby for five then visiting captain Paul Mitchell went , caught by Jamie Arrowsmith , again off Grimbleby , for fourwhich left his team on 94 for 4 with only three overs remaining. Raj and Fred Warburton saw Alkborough to three figures but Graham Clark's final over saw the latter run out for nine and left them requiring 17 from the last over if they were to maintain their impressive year long unbeaten run, That man Grimbleby held his nerve , despite bowling to the in form Raj and with the sun setting below the hedgerow and dusk decending Ludd were able to restrict them to 111 for 5 to clinch a superb victory , Raj finishing on 28 not out as Grimbleby took the applause from his team mates and the gathered crowd for his spell of 2 for 19 in the face of some quality batting.

So Ludd picked up a valuable three points to move to within a point of Alkborough and Haxey in the table whilst Alkborough will now dust themselves down and look to go on another winning run in their chase of league leaders Outcasts. Ludd have three games remaining , against Barton Acadamy Vikings , Messingham and a return game with Alkborough and with this kind of performance who knows what they might achieve.