Brilliant Neyland win at South Wingfield - now relishing home draw in semis
Neyland successfully completed their epic 502-mile round trip to South Wingfield, near Alfreton in Derbyshire, and came home having reached the semi-final of the National Village Competition with a comfortable five-wicket win as their reward.
They now have a home draw in the semi-final after so much travel and they will entertain Houghton Main Cricket Club, from Barnsley, who are currently third in the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League behind Cleethorpes and Whiston Parish Church.
They reached this stage in the competition because their opponents had to withdraw and so they were actually at Neyland’s match to watch their next opponents to see who makes the trip to Lord’s for the final!
Banner gives Neyland a dream start . . .
Neyland got off to a dream start after South Wingfield had elected too bat first but opener Steve Wilson and his namesake Andrew at No 3 were both removed by the excellent Nathan Banner without troubling the scorers as Henry Durrant caught the former and Banner then castled the latter in his six-over spell which saw him finish with 2 for 23.
Richard Fenn has scored over 650 runs for the host club this season and he showed his class in a productive partnership with Alexander Mate but Mate then misjudged a floater from Andrew Miller and gave a return catch when he had scored 11.
. . . And Miller creates mayhem
Miller then ran out Charles Jones for 11 as the batman totally misjudged a run and Miller stopped the ball with his boot and had all the time in the world to remove the bails – and then took the further wickets of Liam Mitchell (caught by Banner for 16) and Sam Colclough (caught behind by Sean Hannon for a duck) in his splendid eight-over stint where he finished with 3 for 15
The writing was finally on the wall, however, when Finn, who had watched all this happen whilst striking six fours in his 31, was adjudged lbw to a typical straight ball from Ross Hardy, who had five maidens in his 1 for 16 analysis from his eight overs.
Brad McDermott-Jenkins (2 for 9) and Durrant (1 for 9) kept the pressure on and it was only a bustling 24 from No 9 Harry Brown, including two fours and a six) that saw South Wingfield to 101 all out in 33.1 overs.
Koomen kills off South Wingfield’s hopes
Neyland needed a steady start and got it via Nick Koomen and Gregg Miller, who only scored three runs but helped Koomen to put on 31 but there might have been a few jitters nine runs later when Ashley Sutton edged a ball into Sam Colclough’s gloves for a single.
But Nathan Banner helped chief run-maker Koomen to take their side to within nine runs of victory with a solid 23 (three fours) before he belted a ball straight back to Kyle Mitchell and had to go.
Mitchell went on to remove Ross Hardy for a ‘golden duck’ and had skipper Hannon for a single as he went for glory but was caught at mid-on!
But Koomen saw things through with a mighty innings og 68 not out, blasting a six to finish in style as Patrick Hannon watched in admiration at the other end!
SCORECARDS:
South Wingfield Batting:
Richard Finn lbw b Ross Hardy 31
Steven Wilson ct Henry Durrant b Nathan Banner 0
Andrew Wilson b Nathan Banner 0
Alexander Mate ct & b Andrew Miller 11
Charles Jones run out 11
Liam Mitchell ct Nathan Banner b Andrew Miller 10
Sam Colclough ct Sean Hannon b Andrew Miller 0
Kyle Mitchell lbw b Brad McDermott-Jenkins 9
Harry Brown ct Patrick Hannon b Henry Durrant 21
Lewis Rockford not out 0
Mike Connolly ct Ross Hardy b Brad McDermott-Jenkins 4
Extras 4
Total (all out) 101
Neyland Bowling:
Patrick Hannon 5-1-28-0; Nathan Banner 6-1-23-2; Ross Hardy 8-5-16-1; Andrew Miller 8-3-15-3; Henry Durrant 4-2-9-1; Brad McDermott-Jenkins 2.3-0-9-2
Neyland Batting:
Nick Koomen not out 68
Gregg Miller ct Kyle Mitchell b Lewis Rockford 3
Ashley Sutton ct Sam Colclough b Harry Brown 1
Nathan Banner ct & b Kyle Mitchell 23
Ross Hardy ct Liam Mitchell b Kyle Mitchell 0
Sean Hannon ct Steven Wilson b Kyle Mitchell 1
Patrick Hannon not out 0
Extras 6
Total (5 wickets) 102
South Winfield Bowling:
Kyle Mitchell 4-0-20-3; Harry Brown 5-1-18-1; Lewis Rockford 7-3-16-1