Hugo hits a century, Division One win for Thorpe Arnold, Egerton Seconds bounce back

Melton Mowbray CC’s Hugo Gibbs hit an unbeaten century in an eight-wicket victory against Egerton Park on Sunday.

The batsman (pictured) reached 112 runs off 71 balls, including 18 fours and two sixes in the Grantham and Melton Cricket Association Division Two.

However, it was defeat for Melton on Saturday, losing by five wickets to visitors Shree Sanatan in the Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket League Division Two.

Alsdo in Division Two, Egerton Park Firsts beat Billesdon by Four wickets.

Meanwhile, Egerton Seconds bounced back from last week’s defeat with a excellent away win at Blaby in Division Six East. Bowling first, Creed again led the way with only 8 runs off his eight overs and the prize wicket of opener James.

Park’s two 14-year-olds Charlie Haffenden and Will Creed both bowled outstanding five over spells with Creed picking up one wicket and Haffenden two.

Wade picked up one in the middle overs before Anderson and Orridge finished off the tail, leaving Park needing 138 to win.

Simons and Creed took the attack to Balby smashing 36 off the first six overs.

Creed fell for 19 but Mold and Hoskinsson both made a quickfire 13 before Tyler joined Simons in the middle.

Simons ran himself out but skipper Tyler again saw the team over the line finishing 33 not out.

In the Premier Division, Syston Town were beaten by 23 runs when they hosted Leicester Ivanhoe.

Mo Pardesi took five wickets and Ram Ghuman top scored with 34 runs.

The second game of the season saw Thorpe Arnold take a trip to Barkby United Firsts.

Richard Randall lost the toss and Thorpe batted first.

Charlie Read and Myles Hickman began the innings with a calm and positive start before Read went for 29.

Richard Garner made a glorious cover drive to open his account then, after a ball appeared to hit bat then pad and after an awkwardly long pause, the umpire’s finger went up.

Sam Pollard joined Myles Hickman in the middle and the boundaries started to flow with sixes and fours coming freely. Pollard went for an well played 26 and Hickman soon after for 54.

Kingsley Miller and Chris Waldron added some well worked singles to start and some big hitting boundaries.

Miller attempted a very quick single and, after making a quite spectacular dive, took out the umpire.

Then the runs started to really started to flow, with boundaries being the order of the day.

Miller went for a 55 but Waldron finished not out on 66.

After a great Thorpe innings of 259, the target was set.

Barkby batting, with Pepperdine and Hickman opening up.

Pepperdine soon struck with the opener trapped LBW, a classic Pepperdine dismissal. Soon after Hickman, with an express delivery and a great take by Pollard in the slips, added another wicket.

Then started the batting fight back with some solid batting before Hickman took another LBW wicket.

Barkby’s middle order, in a similar style to Thorpe’s, started to get the scoreboard ticking via Flowers and Morris.

An unfortunate drop by Read allowed the batmen to press on.

With the game finely balanced, the heavens opened and rain came down.

After a long daily and many calculations later the players knew what was required... Barkby need 32 runs from two overs.

Miller dispatched Flowers with a classic spinner delivery. Then much like the batting of Thorpe, Waldron came in and claimed his first victim of the day after a good catch from Randall got himself under the high ball.

With Barkby eventually finishing at 198-5 from 35 overs, Thorpe get their first win on the board after their return to Division One.

Thorpe Arnold Seconds played Leicester Cricketers on Saturday and came out on top in 86 run win.

Losing the toss, Thorpe batted and found runs hard to come by as the bowlers kept accurate lines with decent movement.

Thorpe were only on 15 runs from 10 overs when they lost Lewis Perry for 3, Dom Exton joining his brother George at the crease and gradually the tempo increased as they both hit regular boundaries and rotated the strike.

Dom was next out for 47 with the score on 100 after 27 overs.

All the incoming batsmen chipped in with quick runs as they worked around George Exton who hit his maiden 50 as he finished on 62 as Thorpe finished on an excellent 219-7 from 40 overs.

Thorpe's opening bowlers of Dan Pegg and Tim Hirst immediately put pressure on and kept things tight especially Tim who was unlucky not to take any wickets.

Jordan Hirst replaced Pegg and continued the pressure as Thorpe were well on top, but it wasn’t until Kane Williams came on in the 21st over that changed everything.

He ended up with the remarkable figures of 5 wickets for 7 runs from four overs including a hat trick to finish the away teams efforts.

New spinner Leo Guy managed to finish the innings with his first wicket for the club with a very poor full toss delivery.

Leicester Cricketers finished on 133 all out for a 86 run win for Thorpe. A good weekend as both teams secured wins