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The Road To Lord's





Round Five - National 32

Into the major phase of the Village Cup, with most focus clubs going unstreamed this round. Cropston (East Midlands) continued their excellent run, thumping West Malvern by 117 runs to reach Round Six. But Cookham Dean (Berkshire) set a below-par target batting first and lost to two-time champions Goatacre by 5 wickets, while potential dark horses Corse & Staunton were bowled out 27 runs short of the magic number against Grampound Road.

But there was live action on the west coast of Cumbria as 2013 champions Cleator took on West Yorkshire's Ackworth, with the visitors winning the toss and putting the hosts in to bat. Disciplined bowling restricted Cleator's scoring, and was treated with due respect by the Cumbrians; opener Tom Sharpe took fifty deliveries just to reach double figures, but shifted through the gears well after that whilst watching a succession of partners fall, reaching his half-century from a hundred and four balls, then holing out at long-on off the next. Nine wickets down going into the final over, a productive ten runs from the final partnership of Cameron and Owen Bell lifted Cleator up to 165-9 off their forty. In the reply, excellent bowling from the Cumbrians coupled with some cavalier batting had Ackworth 42-4 inside the halfway mark, with only number three Liam Carr offering significant resistance. But a solid fifth-wicket partnership, lit up by a run-a-ball 34 from Lovepreet Singh, carried the Yorkshiremen up to 98-5 and left them requiring a shade less than six an over off the last ten. New man Daniel Malyan-Walker, with Carr's support, then launched an all-out assault on the Cleator attack, supplying a four and a six with mighty leg-side blows off his ninth and tenth balls, then doing the same in reverse off his thirteenth and fourteenth. Those rapid twenty runs broke the back of the chase, and though Carr was dismissed LBW for 43, Malyan-Walker continued his happy hitting and sealed the win for Ackworth with a perfectly-timed straight drive that also completed his own fifty.

Elsewhere, despite being resurrected once in the competition, Rockliffe Park seemed determined to crash out all over again against trans-Pennine opponents and competition newcomers Rainford. Batting first and making 147 all out, the Yorkshiremen had no answer to Rainford skipper John Dotters, who struck a 79-ball century en route to an eventual 105 that took the game completely away from Rockliffe. Mark Potter won it within twenty-six overs for the visitors, smashing a six down the ground to complete an 8-wicket win and set up an enticing meeting with Ackworth in the sixth round.

Defending champions Calmore Sports and 2021 runners-up Alvanley remain in the running, the latter facing Meigle, still flying the flag for Scotland after knocking out 2020 semi-finalists Carlton Towers. The full fixtures for 3rd July:

Scotland & North

Rainford (South Lancs) vs Ackworth (West Yorks)
Meigle (Scotland) vs Alvanley (Cheshire)

North Wales & Midlands

Cropston (East Midlands) vs Rolleston (Derbyshire)
Dumbleton (Worcestershire) vs Milford Hall (West Midlands)

South Wales & South West

Grampound Road (Cornwall) vs Calmore Sports Club (Hampshire)
Pentyrch (Glamorgan) vs Goatacre (Wiltshire)

South East

Leeds & Broomfield (Kent) vs Foxton Granta (Cambridgeshire)
Redbourn (Hertfordshire) vs Stoke Green (Buckinghamshire)