NCL: Loddington round it off with cup success

The curtain came down on the local cricket season with the Division One and Division Two knockout finals being played last weekend.

And Wollaston were unable to make it a memorable double after they edged out Loddington to gain promotion back to the Premier Division.

Batting first, Wollaston were bowled out for 161 in 46.3 overs with Matthew Jones (33) and Prasanna Chandran (32) being the main run-getters as captain Liam Flecknor, Nick Herbert, Calum Plowright and Ben Roberts all took two wickets apiece for Loddington.

In reply, Loddington had few problems reaching the target once opener Martin Prowse (64no) and Josh Plowright (49) had put on 85 for the second wicket.

Max Levine (36no) then joined Prowse to finish the job as Loddington clinched the silverware on 163-2 with plenty of time to spare.

Thrapston completed a fine campaign as they won the Division Two Knockout Cup to go along with their runners-up finish in the league, which earned them promotion to Division One.

They were up against St Crispin & Ryelands in the cup final last weekend and secured a 58-run success.

Thrapston’s victory owed a lot to their lower order as number 10 Tom McNally (31), number eight Chris Stoker (27) and number nine Greg Johnson (25no) pushed them to 164 all out after they had been reduced to 98-7 at one stage.

Sam Batten (5-38) and Matthew Rowe (4-48) were in impressive form with the ball for St Crispin.

But, in their reply, only two St Crispin batsmen made it past 20 as Thrapston’s bowlers secured the win.

Oliver Bennett (4-32) was the pick of the attack with McNally (3-18) completing a fine all-round performance and Ryan Gavin chipping in with 2-28 as St Crispin were skittled out for 106 in the 30th over.