Toton Sycamore round-up
by Dennis Wright / Andy Sugden, 21st July 2003

Awsworth vs. Toton Sycamore by Dennis Wright

Toton felt confident that a victory could still be theirs, despite Captain Bennett's absence, in a season that has offered so little to date. Having lost the toss Toton made early inroads to the powerful Awsworth batting line up.

Opening spells from Dominic Robinson 3/32 and Pat O'Neill 2/39 renewed the optimism and when 2nd team captain Richard Chambers 4/41 took over from Robinson, Awsworth were in dire trouble at 113/9. Indeed when a mini recovery brought a rash lofted drive to Long On, the innings was set to close at 130; that was until the chance was spilt.

A similar opportunity at 160 also went begging. Awsworth's innings closed on 182/9 with a mighty six of the last ball to give them maximum batting points. It would be right to say the match turned on the dropped catches. Leon Smith got underway in his usual blistering way but David Hoon who seemed below par was out cheaply. Jon Cunningham hit the ball cleanly but the difference to Toton's batting was that Awsworth made a number of crucial stops and overall the fielding was the major difference.

When Cunningham was out the match was crying out for the big hitters to come in but still they didn't. Sycamore were falling behind the rate and towards the end were needing ten an over. After Smith had departed for 53 the tail did its best to rescue the victory that so clearly should have been, but the task was too much and they finished 14 runs short.

Toton Sycamore II vs. Belvoir III by Andy Sugden

It seems that Toton Sycamore II may have turned the corner after their second consecutive win, this time at the Inham Nook on Saturday afternoon. Batting first, Toton lost both openers early in the innings before recovering to 72-2 thanks to some swashbuckling batting from Donny Pezzolla (38), who impressed with a mighty straight six into the allotments beside the ground.

A mini collapse followed, mainly due to the vivacity of the youthful Belvoir (pronounced Beaver) visitors, before the hosts reached 173ao with gutsy contributions from the lower order, particularly 38 from Qadir Younis.

Belvoir made a solid start to their reply, with the openers showing class against the Toton pace attack. Nerves jangled when Belvoir middle order displayed some powerful strokes, but the excellent bowling of Qadir Younis (4 /25) and the accuracy of veteran Stephen Polkey (3/40) restricted Belvoir to 116ao.

Toton vs. Radcliffe Rovers by Andy Sugden

Sunday saw the visit of the redoubtable Radcliffe Rovers to the Toton Manor. Batting first, Rovers made a rapid start against the fiery bowling of Dominic Robinson, and the less fiery Bennett. Despite tidy bowling from Richardson, Rovers looked set for a big total until last minute substitute Bob Robinson was introduced, outdoing his son by bagging 4 wickets for just 3 runs in 4 overs. Rovers were dismissed for 166, with Sugden snaffling the impressive Kapp (44).

The Toton reply started badly, losing a wicket with the first delivery, but guest player, Jawaid Maqbool made an impressive 50 showing a wide range of quality strokes. Good Rovers bowling meant that wickets fell steadily, and the winning runs were finally hit by Bob Robinson, batting at 9.

Bennett however was left distraught, having been controversially given out caught on 49. This was compounded by his half-witted teammates mistakenly applauding his fifty two balls previously. This was Sycamores 7th straight win on a Sunday and a total of 9 friendly victories represents their 2nd best season ever. Without a doubt Sunday's win against Rovers was their hardest and most noteworthy victory.

On Saturday Toton entertain Lady Bay Boots in 1D and Shepshed Town in 2G, on Sunday Ellerslie are the visitors.