The senior sides of Londesborough Park experienced mixed fortunes last Saturday. Unavailability and a certain local derby of some importance being staged at Wembley resulted in the Red Lion sponsored 2nd XI once again being unable to field a side, conceding the fixture at Goole. Consequently it was left to Greg Drewery and his men to fly the flag at the Park as they welcomed Scarborough’s second string.
In pleasant conditions the visiting skipper Mark Cowell invited the hosts to bat. Drewery partnered James Beevers who tucked away a dozen before Darren Mills broke through his defences with the score on 38. The skipper looked set for another long stay but perished on 28. Brother Michael and Steve Dawson did little to trouble the scorers as the Park slumped to 63 for 4. Charlie Rook and youngster Lucas Stephenson smoothed troubled brows with a solid partnership of 73 before the former was stumped just 2 shy of a half century. The remainder of the innings produced very little other than Stephenson completing an important fifty as Harrison Wood dominated proceedings, finishing with wonderful figures of 8 for 26. At tea the visitors no doubt fancied their chances of overhauling the Park’s finally tally of 170.
The Park’s strike bowler Tom Sowersby struck early in the Scarborough reply, bowling both openers for 12 and 5. Charlie Roberts dominated a partnership with Kieron Howard to put the visitors back on track, posting 33 until Dawson’s safe hands sent him back to the sheds. Rich Foster trapped Howard LBW to complete a 25 ball duck with the score on 73. A mini collapse then saw the seasiders loose 3 wickets for 3 runs as Charlie Rook took centre stage, aided by a stumping from the skipper. The tail provided some resistance as Matthew Watson, David Snowball and Tom Bussey all reached double figures but 2nd XI captain Darren Moody chipped in with two wickets and Ciaran Brooke finished the job to see the Park to victory by 32 runs.
Congratulations to Charlie Rook for his Harpers man of the match award and thanks to MW Pet Shop for sponsoring the match ball. This weekend the 1st XI travels north to Pickering whilst the 2nd XI will be hopeful of mustering enough troops as they entertain local rivals Pocklington.
Londesborough Park 1st XI 170 (L Stephenson 56, C Rook 48, G Drewery 28, H Wood 8-26) Scarborough 2nd XI 138 (C Roberts 41, C Rook 4-25)