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.
