On another bright sunny day last weekend, the Saturday 1s made the trip out to the Fens to take on Long Sutton. Losing the toss, Burghley Park were invited to bowl first on what was a decent cricket pitch.

Father-son duo James and Charlie Biggs took the new ball but failed to make any early breakthroughs. Charlie struggled with his line and length but found the edge and troubled the batters when he got it right. Skipper James was getting the Long Sutton openers playing uncontrolled shots, but these failed to become chances. Opening batter James Laud came on as first change to bowl seam and soon made the breakthrough of dismissing the Long Sutton skipper Baker for 38 with a sharp caught and bowled. Shortly after this Laud then accounted for Long Sutton’s overseas Kruger, who went for his second attempt at a scoop shot – this one was slightly better than the first effort as he made contact – only for it to spoon up nicely for Al Eden to take the simplest of catches in the slip region. Laud finished his spell with decent figures of 2/25. Meanwhile Long Sutton opener Calvin Bird was proving tougher to dislodge, as he continued to accumulate a score and head towards a half-century. This was curtailed with the introduction of David Popple’s leg spin. With his first delivery of his spell, Popple had Bird trapped LBW, just 3 short of his 50. Popple was to claim two more wickets, both caught by Charlie Biggs, with one being an impressive grab running and diving at full stretch at cow corner. Biggs also claimed a curious run out of Indika, who went out of his ground and showed no interest in getting back in as a quick pick up and throw from the youngster founds the gloves of Platt who did the rest. Popple finished his 5-over spell with figures of 3/32. Ella Briault, making her first appearance for the Sunday 1s, was brought on to replace Laud and bowled a very tidy 7-over spell. With her flight and pace proving difficult for the batters to get away, she was rewarded for her excellent efforts with a wicket, caught by Charlie Biggs, giving him three for the match. With 3 wickets remaining, James Biggs brought Mo Azhar on and he struck in his first over, cleaning bowling Jake Burton. Biggs brought himself back on replacing Popple, and he claimed the final two wickets, taking figures of 2/39. In total Long Sutton scored 206 in 36.3 overs.

The chase opened up in thrilling fashion, with a brilliant contest between bat and ball. Long Sutton opener Harshana bowled with good pace and movement, squaring up James Laud on more than one occasion. However Laud was watchful and pounced on anything slightly off-line, making for great viewing early on in the second innings. Harshana finished his opening spell without any wickets, for which he can feel unlucky as Laud was put down in the slips by Jake Burton, but ultimately it was the Burghley opener who came away victorious from the dual. At the other end, Kruger’s off-spin was deployed, but Laud dealt with this with much more ease, striking regular boundaries off the South-African. Laud was partnered this time round by Andy Briault, who had a much more cautious approach to his innings. Briault was happy to play the support act to Laud until he was adjudged LBW from the leg-spin of Burton for 13. Burton then made it 2-in-a-row as David Platt came and went for a golden duck – he too adjudged LBW. This brought Al Eden to the crease, but unfortunately he, too, was unable to trouble the scorers, being bowled by Plant for a 9-ball duck. The dependable Keyan Gace became the next man to partner Laud, and between them they began to tick the runs off with a sense of comfortability. Laud brought up yet another 50 and carried on as he had started and made good progress to the three digits. Gace’s quick hands were on display again, with late cuts and drives bringing Burghley closer to their target. It was with a late-cut himself that Laud made his way to another brilliant 100, raising his bat for the 3rd time this year for the Sunday 1s! Sadly Laud’s stay was over shortly after he brought up his landmark, being caught behind by Kruger from the bowling of Bird for 103. With 44 runs required, Charlie Biggs joined Keyan at the crease and quickly got into his work. He got off the mark with a smart dab through third-man for 4, and between them Gace and Biggs carried on the chase with confidence. With the target and another Gace 50 homing into sight, the young Biggs batted with maturity to pick up runs and rotate the strike, finishing on a well made 15*. With Keyan needing 1 run for his 50 and Burghley 1 run to win, he was able to send the ball to the long-off boundary to bring up 4, collecting his second 50 of the season (to go with 1 ton) and maximum points for the Park. Excellent knocks from Laud and Gace gave Burghley control of the chase from the get-go, and they never once relinquished this.

Next week we are back at home as we welcome Uppingham to Burghley Park.

This match is sponsored by Hegarty.