Belvoir Cricket Club finish season with tense draw

After another tense finish, Belvoir ended the Division A season in a comfortable mid-table position of sixth.

Accurate seam bowling from Tom Shields (3 for 28) and George Barker (4 for 46) pegged Belvoir pegged back at 55-5 after 17 overs.

But Aled King offered staunch resistance as he joined Tom Neville (44) in a 48-run partnership which renewed hope of a decent score.

Neville produced seven typically powerful boundaries, but was restrained in light of the team’s needs.

When he was finally seventh man out, with Belvoir having only 120 on the board, Olly Elson came to the wicket with determination and aggression.

His 43 from 35 deliveries contained seven fours, and was well supported by Fraser Fentem and Danny Gibson as Belvoir reached 194 all out.

Attenborough’s skipper Will Shields led the chase with an exemplary 83, adding 63 for the fourth wicket with Pete Bateman (21) to take the score to 130-4 in the 34th over.

He then found gritty support from Stentiford as they added 34 before Shields was well caught in the deep by Olly Clayfield, one of his three excellent catches.

With 31 needed from 52 balls and five wickets left, Ryan Lewis swapped his bowlers around and never let the batsmen settle.

The only prolonged spell came from Phil Irvine who ran in like a train to unnerve Attenborough’s late middle-order and struck regularly.

Even the stubborn Tom Shields (15) was induced into a rash pull and was well caught by Gibson at mid-wicket.

Still Attenborough required just six from the last over, but it was fast and accurate and another wicket fell.

Four were needed off the last ball, but the batsman could only squirt it out to deep point and run two as Irvine rescued a winning draw.

The matchball was sponsored by JP Agnew and the TMS Team.