Thorpe Arnold at the double

Thorpe Arnold welcomed Loughborough Carrilon for a vital Division One clash - claiming a 29-run victory.

Richard Randall strode out to the middle, full of hope and like all great things it unravelled and the toss was lost. Thorpe Arnold were batting first.

Clarke and Read began the innings with hope passed on from their captain. Unfortunately hope don’t get you runs, both opening batmen were peppered with some impressive deliveries and C Read was the first victim of the day, snicking off the opening bowler, 8-1.

Then Bhojwani joined Clarke at crease and this partnership was not written in the stars, and Clarke was dismissed after a delivery popped off the deck, 10-1.

Bhojwani and Mistry then started the re-build and the adage Rome was not built in a day comes to mind. It started slowly with some nice timed singles and then Bhojwani put away any loose deliveres and scoreboard moved in Thorpe's favour.

Bhojwani was thumping any that was not the correct line and length and Mistry did a great job of rotating strike and keeping Bhojwani on strike. The 50 run partnership came and went. As Thorpe got towards three figures.

But unfortunately Mistry was bowled by an impressive delivery from the young Loughborough bowler, 93-3.

Miller then joined Bhojwani, the spin twins stop together was brief Miller and was bowled, 100-4.

Waldron and Bhojwani were the new Thorpe pair and much like love island their partnership was over before it begun. With Bhojwani getting trapped LBW after a fantastic 65 which was filled with lovely stroke play, power hitting and well timed singles, 106-5.

Then it was up to Pollard and Waldron to get Thorpe back on track. This then became a quick fire range hit for Pollard with some sweetly timed sweep shots and some massive sixes, regardless for the opposition fielding position, with at one point no fewer than four players at cow corner.

Pollard without a second thought preceded to hit it over all of their heads. The definition of see ball and hit ball.

The scoreboard moved quickly, this was great batting from Thorpe. Pollard was unfortunately bowled after a quick fire 27 off a mere 30 balls, 143-6.

The Captain joined Waldron and the crease and after another short partnership, Randall was out without troubling the scorers, 144-7.

With the game starting to slip away Waldron had his latest partnership which was James Pepperdine. Then the runs started flowing, there was some impressive strokes from Waldron bring up some boundary balls and Pepperdine defensive was on point but also rotated strike well. As the scoreboard ticked over 165 things were on the up.

Runs started to flow as the scores went above 180, but then Pepperdine was undone and it was 184-8.

Waldron tacked on some late runs but the but Thorpe were eventually all out for 190.

Loughborough then began there batting innings with Pepperdine and Waldron opening up the bowling. There were initial some loose overs but the bowlers regain control and Pepperdine struck in his second over of the day, sending the middle stump cart wheeling down the pitch, 20-1. After a maiden over from Waldron, Pepperdine struck again knocking over the stumps with another swinging delivery, 20-2.

Loughborough then began to dig in and got the scoreboard going, as the scoreboard was now heading towards 50.

But Pepperdine had other plans who’s delivery crashed into the opening batman's pad and another wicket fell, 48-3.

The Thorpe field then starting rocking and they turned to K Miller to keep the wickets falling and in his first over, he delivered bowling a darting delivery, 54-4.

Pepperdine then claimed his fourth victim of the day after a nice take from M Truter in the field, 59-5.

Loughborough were in trouble and needed to a partnership to keep the game alive. This then began to happen with the Loughborough player A Casey starting to up the run rate and hit some lovely strokes and power shots and the scoreboard was going in the wrong direction for Thorpe Arnold and now Loughborough were over 100.

This was only interrupted by the rain for a short break where one over was lost and the revised total of 189 was set.

A Casey worked his way to well played 50, as the scoreboard now was over 125. But eventually he played one shot too many and was bowled by K Miller, 131-6. A Casey was out for a well played 74.

K Miller was in on the act a few balls later this time getting a batman out LBW, 132-7.

Then Loughborough began to get some but these did come slowly with the overs ticking away, due to the fantastic bowling of N Bhojwani who did not claim a wicket but finished with impressive figures of 0-8 off 7 overs.

Then with game in the balance, M Truter took his first wicket of the day reward for the hard bowling yards he has put in all day, 154-8.

Then another quick wicket for Truter after a solid take from Bhojwani, 155-9.

Even with Pepperdine bowled out all of his overs, you could not keep the man out of the game causing a run out for the last wicket and Loughborough finished 159 all out.

Some great figures from Thorpe side with the ball J Pepperdine 4-40 and K Miller 3-45.

With the bat N Bhojwani with a fantastic 65, S Pollard quick fire 27 and C Waldron impressive 34* not out.

Thorpe travel to Ashby Hasting next week full of confidence as the season starts to get to its conclusion.

Thorpe Seconds won by 46 runs against Walton 111.

Thorpe lost the toss and were asked to bat in perfect bowling conditions.

Andy Sibun and young Josh Carnell opened the batting and they faced bowlers who bowled line and length letting the grassy pitch do plenty.

The pair of them batted sensibly with Sibun hitting any bad ball to the boundary and Carnell rotating the strike.

A partnership of 76 runs at drinks set up the Thorpe innings until Carnell was first to go for an excellent 19 runs in tough conditions.

Sibun then went for 56 caught on the boundary as a flurry of wickets fell in quick succession as the Walton spinner was turning it at right angles. Tim Hirst was joined by Jordy Hirst and the father and son combo added 50 runs to add a very important partnership.

Hirst Snr was out for 35 trying to up the run rate and Hirst Jnr was out for 29, run out by a direct hit. Thorpe finished on 156 all out in the last over, a few runs less than it looked like it would be after the excellent start.

Joe Anderson opened the bowling for Thorpe and he continued his good form by using the pitch to great effect by taking the top five batsmen, aided by four great catches, to reduce Walton to 34-5.

Walton dug in and managed to see off Anderson for no more wickets and gradually got into the game.

Dom Birch came on and made the important breakthrough as Walton were on 60-6. Archie Cropper was bowling from the other end and was causing all sorts of problems with his leg spin.

He took the wicket of the last Walton batsman who looked like he could get them into the game with a classic leg spinners delivery, caught behind by Sibun for 36.

Jordy Hirst came on at the other end and kept it tight and picked up twoi wickets as Walton were bowled out for 111 in the 36th over.

A great team performance with Andy Sibun(56) & Joe Anderson 10-2-29-5, being the pick.