Cutthorpe beat Derbyshire in real thriller
by Paul Barker, 4th August 2006

In  a match held for Kevin Dean’s testimonial, Cutthorpe entertained a Derbyshire XI and in a real thriller emerged victorious by five wickets in the gathering gloom at the Recreation Ground with just two balls to spare. The match was played in front of a wildly excited crowd and it is a great pity that this sort of attendance isn’t repeated in league cricket. I feel sure that if enough people decided to come along they would thoroughly enjoy themselves and want to come back over and over again.

Congratulations must however go to the Cutthorpe club who as well as a cricket match made it a great evening out for the whole family with games, a huge bouncy castle for the kids and adults, a hot dog and burger stall plus the bar open all evening. Any profits they made they worked damned hard for and thoroughly deserved the support they got.

Any thoughts that the Derbyshire XI had that this would be a walk in the park where quickly dispelled as Nigel Kingham held a terrific catch off Asadullah Butt in the slips to dismiss Wayne White with the score only on 11. James Pipe was quickly into his stride with some lusty blows but Butt struck again at 31 when he clean bowled Andy Gray. Andy Knowles got in on the act when he clean bowled Mokwane (14) when the score reached 47 and then with the score on 78 the dangerous Pipe was brilliantly caught on the fence by Asadullah Butt off Tim Kirk having made an excellent 30.

Derbyshire’s current skipper Graham Welch smashed some mighty blows before being caught by John Combe off Stuart Barlow for 38, and Barlow claimed his second wicket dismissing the beneficiary Kevin Dean to make the score 111 for 6. Tim Kirk struck for the second time when he had Paget brilliantly caught by Linacre in the deep and Ballance fell victim to Nigel Kingham via another terrific catch this time by Andy Knowles.

The final wicket fell to Asadullah Butt who clean bowled Craig Ranson for an enterprising 39 and with Karl Krikken managing two sixes in his unbeaten 13, the Derbyshire innings closed on 171 for 9. Asadullah Butt was Cutthorpe’s leading bowler with the excellent figures of 3 for 23, and the other wicket takers were Stuart Barlow (2 for 49), Tim Kirk (2 for 22), Andy Knowles (1 for 30) and Nigel Kingham (1 for 10).

Cutthorpe’s reply fell away to a bad start when Nigel Kingham was superbly taken in the slips by Chris Paget off James Pipe with just 12 runs on the board and although Matt Cluer hit three consecutive fours he followed at 31 when he was run out after a superb throw from Wayne White. Two more wickets fell cheaply with Tim Kirk easily caught by Craig Ranson and the dangerous Andy Thompson edged to slip where he was smartly taken by Karl Krikken off Kevin Dean.

Although Stuart Barlow was deceived and bowled by Balance to make the score 56 for 5, a partnership then began to develop between Asadullah Butt and Tim Barlow and although both were sluggish to start with, they lifted the pace in tremendous fashion as both found their feet.

Barlow hit some brilliant shots, but Butt was totally irrepressible and ball after ball was fired out of the ground as the pair simply blasted everything that was bowled at them. With two balls of the match remaining Asadullah Butt finished proceeding in the grand manner with a towering six off Wayne White to give Cutthorpe a memorable victory. Butt finished on an unbeaten 80 and great support came from Tim Barlow who was also unbeaten on 41 and this pair had added an unbroken 121 runs at breakneck speed in a thrilling confrontation.

James Pipe (2 for 20), Kevin Dean (1 for 23) and Graham Balance (1 for 18) took the wickets to fall but it was a fine contest and praise must go to all concerned with the match played in a marvellous spirit and thoroughly enjoyed by all. Two people who were the unsung heroes who worked their socks off to make sure everything went well were Mark Barlow who as well as doing a heap of administration work acted as MC all evening and John McCollum who prepared a fine wicket.

It certainly was a night to remember and Asadullah Butt quite rightly was awarded the man of the match for his magnificent unbeaten 80 plus 3 for 23 with the ball. Mark Barlow also presented Kevin Dean with a bottle of champagne and Kevin Dean presented the umpires Niven Roper and Paul Barker with a specially designed benefit tie each. Credit is certainly due to everyone involved who helped to put on a great night which was appreciated by a bumper and much deserved crowd.

You can view a the scorecard (in jpg format) by clicking here.