Magic McKinlay is Attenborough hero
by Paul Barker, 22nd September 2008

A brilliant all round exhibition by Alec McKinlay gave Attenborough a 41 run victory over Farnsfield in the Champion of Champions trophy match at Welbeck on Saturday. This match is an annual event between the champions of the Bassetlaw Cricket League and the South Nottinghamshire League and the result shows how well matched the standards between both these combinations are, with the honours virtually being shared between both sets of champions over the years.

Whilst there were numerous good performances from both sides, McKinlay was without doubt the stand-out performer. He arrived at the wicket at a time when Attenborough could have been on the verge of a struggle if they had lost another wicket, and then ripped the heart out of the Farnsfield middle order when a good stand could have taken the game away from them.

Farnsfield took first blood when Brett Hutton found the edge of Craig Heiden’s bat for Paul Franks to hold on to a sharp low catch at slip early on, but from this point, Chris Allcoat and Tom Murray both batted extremely sensibly and gave the innings the substance that it needed.

The score had reached the mid eighties when Murray who had batted superbly for his 43, recklessly and needlessly gave Sam Wood the charge and was comfortably stumped by Gary Wilson and soon after Chris Allcoat was bowled by Lewis Saxby to set the alarm bells ringing.

Enter McKinlay and another wicket at this stage and a low score was very much on the cards and though he survived one chance off a fiercely hit drive he was the complete master for the rest of the innings.

He received splendid support in the early part of his innings from Ben Sheppard (16) but after he had gone, a whole host of wickets fell cheaply with only skipper Andy Simkiss (13) providing much support. McKinlay reached a superb 50 and continued to flay the Farnsfield attack particularly in the final over as he finished unbeaten on a quite brilliant 72.

The innings closed on a very useful looking 197 for 8 with Brett Hutton (2 for 32), Lewis Saxby (2 for 53) and Jamie Smith (2 for 29) claiming the majority of the wickets.

The Farnsfield innings got away to a wretched start when Dominic Harvey rearranged Sam Wood’s stumps to send the Attenborough players into wonderland but the joy was short lived as Paul Delaney and Alistair Haynes quickly got on top and punished the bad ball severely.

Delaney looked in prime form until he hit a full toss from Chris Allcoat straight to Tom Murray, but Michael Bell carried on in similar mood whilst Haynes was particularly severe on anything short. The defining factor took place as Farnsfield reached 86 for 2 and looked extremely comfortable. Enter Alec McKinlay once more and in the space of ten balls from him, Bell, Paul Franks and Haynes were all back inside and Attenborough were firmly in command.

Haynes had batted superbly to make 43 and anything that was off line or short he punished severely. Still McKinlay had not finished and a brute of a ball that kept awfully low trapped the dangerous Brett Hutton in front and this guy was having the kind of match that one could only dream about.

For a brief while Andy Edwards and Jamie Smith threatened to pull the game around, but the damage had been done and when the former was caught in the deep by Charlie Simkiss off the returning Dominic Harvey the end was very much in sight.

Credit must go however to Jamie Smith who battled very hard for his side making an unbeaten 31 with a mixture of sensible defence and some huge blows. McKinlay made it five wickets for himself when he bowled Lewis Saxby and Harvey weighed in with the final two wickets as Farnsfield were dismissed for 156.

Adding to his unbeaten 72, McKinlay took 5 for 28 on a day he will never want to forget, whilst the hostile Dominic Harvey also bowled brilliantly to take 4 for 35 as Attenborough deservedly claimed the trophy.

With Peter McKenzie of the Nottinghamshire Cricket Board doing service as MC, Charlie French presented the trophies which were kindly sponsored and provided by Alan Croome of Mapperley Sports to the two scorers, the two umpires and the players of both sides. Andy Simkiss the Attenborough skipper received the trophy and Alec McKinlay was awarded the Man of the Match prize and that was not the most difficult decision that had ever been made.

A good crowd had enjoyed an excellent match on one of the nicest days of this disappointing summer and this fixture proved once again to be one of the most popular of the local Cricket calendar.

Scorecard