Superb Sileby hammer hapless Harborough as Second's slowly secure survival

Sileby Town claimed just their third victory of the season on Saturday winning by 7 wickets against Market Harborough 2nd XI at Mill Lane.

It was an all-round accomplished performance by the Division 2 outfit, lead by stand-in skipper Micky Ruddle for the second week running, despite the side’s heavy defeat to Loughborough Town last weekend.

Ruddle won the toss, and with a bit of cloud cover, he elected to field first, and Sileby got off to a fantastic start with seamer Fred Notman dismissing captain Chris Gordon, edging behind to Ruddle at second slip for a fifth ball duck.

Just four overs later, Notman picked up his second victim, dismissing George Bott for 5 bowling the opener with the score on 13-2.

A tidy partnership of 28 between M Collins and M Pozarskis gave the visitors a little bit of stability in the top order, but it was Adam Hackett with the breakthrough for the third wicket, with the latter having his leg stump bail removed as he departed for 12.

M Collins found himself back in the hutch just two overs later falling to Hackett for his second of the day. The young right hander looked in good form for his patient 26 before the seamer’s short and wide delivery had the number three cutting straight to Charity at second gully.

With the score now on 44-4, Harborough’s collapse seemed comparably similar to Sileby’s last week, but the boot was on the other foot, fortunately for the home side and within the space of just over an over, R Collins (0) and Clarke (2) fell to medium pacers Ruddle and Dawson respectively as Harborough were now six down for just 48 runs.

Ramdeen and Williams offered some resistance for the seventh wicket. For 43 deliveries, Williams resistance assisted Ramdeen as he was allowed to score relatively freely in a partnership of 32.

But after much pressure, Ramdeen succumbed to Ruddle as he picked out Notman at mid-off for 19.

Notman’s re-introduction was rewarded with the wicket of Williams’ who tried his best to dig his side out of the hole they were in, but the stubborn lower order batsman edged behind to Sean Dudley for his 4.

The tailend offered a lot of resistance with Kirk and Sadd both biding their time, hoping to make it to 45 overs. The left handed Kirk had played elegantly as he looked to salvage the top order damage that Notman and Hackett had caused early on.

Sadd was rewarded with two lifelines as Charity had spilled two fairly easy chances that could have put the first innings to bed, but the number ten ably supported Kirk as he crashed his way to 28 with five fours to his name.

But Kirk became Ruddle’s third wicket before off-break bowler Charity removed Moss for a golden duck with his first delivery, leaving the away side to defend just 129 in 45 overs.

Notman ended up with fine figures of 10-2-26-3, whilst Hackett’s 2-48, Ruddle 3-29 and Dawson’s 1-21 displayed a pleasing bowling performance overall.

Kindleysides and Dudley shared a fine stand of 55 for the first wicket, before Kindleysides was dismissed by Kirk for 27.

Dudley’s patient 32 from 64 balls soon came to an end when Pozarskis trapped the opener in front of the stumps leaving the score on 106-2.

Gethin King did not mess about as he made 32 from just 21 balls but he gifted Harborough a bowling point as he was caught off the bowling of R Collins, with just nine to win.

Ford and Charity eventually reached the target, inevitably, as Sileby recorded their first 24 points of the season boosting their chances of survival.

Sileby’s win means they go above Leicester Ivanhoe (151) by just three points, but leaves them 16 points clear of second bottom Quorn 138, as they now head to lowly Lutterworth  2nds (118), full of confidence.

Sileby suffer setback as Town trounce two’s

Loughborough Town 2nd XI capitalised on Hinckley Town’s shock defeat to Ibstock Town on Saturday afternoon after they defeated Sileby Town 2nd XI by 9 wickets at Park Road.

The hosts started the day in second place, five points behind promotion chasing Hinckley Town before their demolition job of Sileby Town allowed them to regain top spot with just six games left of the Everards Division 2 season.

Sileby were light on their bowlers this week, with Ryan Dawson promoted to the 1st XI.

And it was Micky Ruddle who took over the captaincy from Mo Khan, who joined Ryan Dawson in the 1st XI, and it was a day to forget.

After losing the toss, the visitors got off to a bad start, with Gethin King (0) being bowled with the first ball of the game by Kyle Saddington, to a wonderful inswinging delivery putting Sileby on the back foot almost immediately.

Saddington picked up his second wicket, dismissing Joe Charity (1) caught in the slips with the score 1-2.

Charles Kindleysides and Jack Ford had the task of recovering Sileby’s top order collapse, but the off-spin of experienced Martin Gidley had tempted Kindleysides to go over the in-field, but his drive did not have the legs to beat mid-on departing for 19.

Ford (20) followed falling to Gidley sweeping, and despite a brief partnership of 23 with Ruddle, Dan Tompkins fell to Sagar Patel for 8.

The returning Nigel Kinch shared a partnership of 59 for the sixth wicket, elevating Sileby’s weak score from 73-5 to 132-6, until Ruddle (34) was caught at long-on, looking for the maximum from Nil Patel.

Kinch (36) was stumped and Adam Hackett along with Fred Notman helped post 147 in their 45 overs.

Loughborough’s response lead by Joe Purvis and Gidley, and followed up by Saddington, took just over 27 overs to seal their victory.

Purvis took apart Sileby’s attack, crashing nine four’s and two sixes in the process for his 65 before youngster Kieron Chance took his first second team wicket with Kindleysides snapping up the opener at square leg.

But that was the only highlight of Sileby’s bowling attack. Loughborough claim 24 points, enhancing their chances of gaining promotion to Division 1 and Sileby have six games to find a winning formula to make sure they stay in Division two for another year.