Grimston defeat youthful North Runcton outfit in Norfolk Cricket League

Grimston Cricket Club continue to set the pace at the top of Division Four West of the Norfolk Cricket League after making it three wins from as many games at the weekend.

The team welcomed North Runcton’s third team to Grimston Cricket Ground on Saturday, in a match which saw the league’s two new teams meet for the first time.

Overcast conditions prevailed early in the match, with sun forecast later in the day, meaning the toss was of particular significance. Grimston Captain Andrew Tilbrook duly won the toss and elected to field first.

The North Runcton openers, Sam Major and Freddie Hawkins began a resolute partnership in the face of some blistering bowling from Bharathi Krishnan and Liam Woodcock.

Having seen off the first bowlers, Major and Hawkins went on the attack, only for James Hoyland to take a superb catch from the bowling of Ali Khalid and end Major’s innings.

Hawkins went on to score 26, and the top score for Runcton was from Captain Ben Newton with 38. North Runcton finished their innings all-out for 128.

Grimston’s best bowling performance was from Woody, with 2/0.

Grimston started their innings in much the same way as North Runcton, with Mike Mallett and Sam Adkin starting slowly, surviving the opening salvos from bowlers Max Barnes and Freddie Hawkins.

Having amassed a paltry total of 11 runs from the first 10 overs, Mallett and Adkin began to turn on the pressure, and when Adkin’s wicket finally fell in the 21st over the scoreboard had reached 66.

Mallett followed soon after having scored 36 runs, but the foundation had been laid for what was to come, with Josh Leverett King scoring a further 19 and James Hoyland seeing Grimston over the line with two boundaries.

Max Barnes was the standout bowler for North Runcton, taking 2/15 from his seven overs.

Tilbrook was happy with the performance, saying: “It was a professional display from the players today, we fielded competently and I’m not sure there is a better bowling attack in the league.

"Full credit to North Runcton too, they had a young side today with some cracking young players."