Peterborough Town close in on consolation prize, Knights close to conquering Hunts Division Two and the amazing batting stats of Ketton Sports star
Peterborough Town look set to miss out on major Northants League honours, but they should now gain the consolation prize of a fifth Rutland Division One crown in six seasons.
Town reached the summit on Sunday with a hard-fought four wicket win over deposed champions Barnack at Bretton Gate.
The city side need to win just one of their last three matches to seal the deal. They are at Newborough, the only team who can stop them, this Sunday (noon).
It wasn’t plain sailing for Town against Barnack as they lost both openers for ducks after setting out in pursuit of 184, but Zeeshan Manzoor (47), Sandeep Nanda (40), Scott Howard (37no) and Lachie McMillan (30) did enough to see them home.
Bottom club Castor toppled Division Two champions Oakham by seven wickets at Port Lane after skittling the visitors for 94.
Werrington seconds guaranteed second spot with a 41 run win over Ufford Park, but won’t be able to go up as their first team are already in Division One.
Orton Park blew a chance to go top of Division Three by suffering a four wicket defeat at home to LGR seconds despite 102 for Harry Richardson, 61 from Divyeash Vaseeharan and 51 from Cameron Harris.
Binoy Joseph struck 120 as United Sports beat Whittlesey.
HUNTS LEAGUE
Peterborough Knights are on the verge of the Hunts Division Two title after a thrilling one-wicket win at Nassington.
A century from Arbas Nawaz helped the home side post a strong 292 in 45 overs, but the Knights’ target was reduced to 260 in 40 overs and they sneaked home with one wicket and three balls to spare.
Hayder Ali steered the champions-elect home with an unbeaten 67 after Tanveer Mahmood had opened the innings with a half century. Knights need just a few points from their final game against bottom club Houghton & Wyton to seal top spot.
Werrington clinched their promotion with a 56-run win at Bretton. Late hitting from Saad Ashraf (89no) and Junaid Hussain (66no) pushed Werrington up to 259-5 before Amir Yaseen (5-53) and Jawad Chaudhry (4-42) undermined the Bretton reply.
Stamford Town seconds secured their survival with an 18-run win at Biggleswade seconds as 67 from Luke Toomey proved crucial.
Royal Strikers remain in pole position to join Ickwell in winning promotion from Division Three after their penultimate match was conceded to them. Werrington seconds can still overhaul them though after demolishing Elstow by 232 runs.
Hampton seconds are promoted from Division Four despite suffering a heavy 138-run defeat at Ickwell. Zeeshan Sheikh scored 82 of Hampton’s 147.
SOUTH LINCS LEAGUE
Dan Hughes has racked up an amazing set of batting statistics to help power Ketton Sports to the Division One title.
Hughes struck an unbeaten 146 as his team beat Orton Park by 61 runs to seal top spot with a game to go.
Hughes has now scored 960 runs in 11 innings at an average of over 137. He has now hit five tons with a top score of 163 not out.
Harry Richardson (77) and Navneet Agnihotri (59) batted well as Orton Park’s replied to Ketton’s 270-6 with 209.
Hughes was overshadowed last weekend by Aaron John of Long Sutton seconds who smacked 192 in a big win over Spalding seconds. John and Rajan Sangha (101) put on 312 for the first wicket.