Greenslade hits out for Melton

GREAT Melton B travelled to one of only two unbeaten sides in the Norfolk League - Sprowston B - and returned home with a 15-run win to claim 25 points.

New skipper, Damien Loines, in charge of a Melton team for the first time, won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked a good batting surface.

Loines and opening partner Lee Whiddett got off to a solid start, putting on 32 for the first wicket. When Whiddett was bowled by opening bowler Cook, Loines was joined at the crease by Neal Clarke.

The two put on 103 to resurrect the innings the previous week, and again started to build a solid-looking partnership, with Clarke getting off the mark with a cover drive for four and repeating it the next ball.

At the other end Loines was again looking every bit the man in form, punishing any bad balls and running well between the wickets.

The Sprowston skipper then brought on young leg spinner Evans, who with good bowling to well-placed field settings was able to restrict the run rate of the innings.

Trevedi then replaced Campbell, Loines taking 18 off his first over, but after this the run rate slowed and batsmen were frustrated.

The pair had put on 52 for the second wicket and just as they started to rotate the strike, Trevedi struck, bowling Clarke for 12. Jon Howard then joined Loines at the crease as they looked to push the innings on, with Howard hitting Evans over the rope for a glorious six.

Loines, within three of his second Melton 50, played a rash shot and was bowled by Trevedi for 47.

In the next over Howard also fell, caught on the long on boundary, and Melton's innings looked to be falling apart at 109 for four off 27 overs.

With two new men at the crease in Alborough and debutant Abi Bhaskar, they set about rebuilding the innings.

Starting slowly for a couple of overs, the pair then started to get into their stride, hitting some excellent shots, the highlight of which was a towering six from Alborough over the long-off boundary. The pair had put on 52 for the fifth wicket when Bhasker fell for 16 and Alborough was caught in the next over for 29.

The innings looked as if it might fizzle out, but some excellent batting from Ed Allen (17) helped get Melton to a respectable 199 for nine.

The Sprowston innings started well, the first three overs going for 18. Then the excellent Jack McCurley was finding his rhythm and bowled L Cook for four. Melton got their second wicket in the next over when Jake Mardell got one to lift off a length, Lee Whiddett taking a comfortable catch at gully. Melton did not take another wicket for 15 overs, as D Roff (58) and N Spilling (13) put on 36 for the third wicket until Grenville Ireland (1-41) removed Spilling in an excellent spell of bowling.

Partnered by J Howard (0-35), the two squeezed the Sprowston innings and although Roff and Yallop put on 64 for the fourth wicket, they were getting further behind the required rate.

Loines then turned to McCurley, who bowled brilliantly at the death, with none of the batsmen able to cope with his extra pace and bounce, and once he bowled Roff for a well- made 58, Melton looked to be heading for their first win in four matches.

Sprowston skipper, I Doy then gave Melton the jitters as he came in and ran well and hit boundaries to keep everyone interested, but when he was out with an excellent stumping from George Ducker, it was only a matter of time.

It was then left to man-of-the-match McCurley to finish the job off as he cleaned up the Sprowston

tail, finishing with impressive figures of 12-0-47-6, with Melton winning by 15 runs.

Great Melton B: L Whiddett b Cook 14, D Loines b Trevedi 47, N Clarke b Trevedi 4, J Howard c Spilling b Evans 14, T Alborough c Yallop b Austin 29, A Bhasker b Austin 16, G Ducker c Cook b Austin 5, E Allen c Evans b Austin 17, G Ireland lbw b Yallop 4, J Mardell not out 3, J McCurley not out 3; extras 36. Total (9 wkts) 199. Bowling: Cook 7-1-29-1, Campbell 9-2-24-0, Evans 11-1-52-1, Trevedi 11-3-47-2, Austin 5-0-17-4, Yallop 2-0-14-1

Sprowston B: D Austin c Whiddett b Mardell 9, L Cook b McCurley 4, D Roff b McCurley 58, N Spilling b Ireland 13, G Yallop c Mardell b McCurley 24, J Spilling c Allen b McCurley 8, I Doy st Ducker b Mardell 12, K Trevedi c Allen b McCurley, S Campbell run out 4, M Evans b McCurley 6, T Cook not out 0. Total (9 wkts) 184. Bowling: J McCurley 12-0-47-6, J Mardell 9-4-28-1, E Allen 4-0-13-0, G Ireland 12-2-40-1, J Howard 8-0-35-0.Great Melton C (26 points) beat Felthorpe A (7 points) by five wickets at Felthorpe with 13-year-old Chris Greenslade playing a starring role.

He scored 91 - his highest score - and there were 50s for Steve Clarke and Jon Moxon as a stronger-than- usual Great Melton C chased down 254 to earn their second successive win at Felthorpe and lift themselves out of Division Seven's bottom two.

On a very warm day, on a good wicket it was no surprise when Felthorpe skipper Alex Hamilton elected to

bat first but his own innings did not last long.

After luckily surviving an huge appeal for a caught behind in the first over, he was clean-bowled by Greenslade for four.

Doyle was lbw to Simon Brett for eight but Julian Dismore, batting with a runner, and J Larke put together a third-wicket partnership of 74 before Larke was lbw to DeSalis.

Dismore eventually fell to a great catch by Moxon for a fine 82, leaving Robinson (30) and Collard (44) to take the score past 200, although Collard survived two strong appeals for stumpings.

The tail fell away as Brett picked up 4-74 and DeSalis 3-61 as Felthorpe, with only nine batsmen, were dismissed for 254.

With Melton's batting line-up looking strong, skipper Mally Howard was confident his side could chase down the total on a ground renowned for big scores and so it was to prove as Steve Clarke and young Chris Greenslade set about the task with relish.

Greenslade, batting with great maturity and hitting some superb shots all round the wicket, raced to 50 and the partnership brought 160 off 28 overs before Greenslade was bowled for a brilliant 91 which included 14 fours and one six.

Clarke ran himself out in the next over for 55 and, although Melton lost George King (6), Toby Wyatt (11) and Simon Brett (7) relatively cheaply, Jon Moxon continued to punish the bad ball as the score raced along.

Moxon, who stood down as B team skipper and dropped into the Cs to recapture some batting form, certainly did as his unbeaten 59 saw Melton to victory with three overs remaining.

Skipper Howard finished the

match with three successive boundaries to give his resurgent C team maximum points.

Felthorpe A: A Hamilton b Greenslade 4, J Dismore c Greenslade b Brett 82, M Doyle lbw Brett 8, J Larke lbw DeSalis 30, G Robinson b Brett 29, C Collard not out 44, G Sutton c Moxon b Brett 10, K Doyle c Clarke b DeSalis 0, E Doyle b DeSalis 0, extras 47. Total 254. Bowling: K Mason 6-1-27-0, C Greenslade 10-1-58-1, S Brett 12-1-74-4, T Wyatt 5-0-25-0, L DeSalis 11.5-0-61-3.

Great Melton C: S Clarke run out 55, C Greenslade b Robinson 91, G King b Collard 6, J Moxon not out 59, T Wyatt c M Doyle b Robinson 11, S Brett run out 7, M Howard not out 12; extras 14. Total 256-5. Bowling: C Collard 11-0-75-0, G Robinson 12-0-53-2, J Larke 2-0-14-0, M Doyle 8-0-46-0, E Doyle 8-0-59-0.

Great Melton U11 beat Rocklands by 101 runs and Mulbarton by six wickets in the South Norfolk Community League.

Joe Greenslade hit successive half-centuries as Great Melton U11 set the pace in the South Norfolk Community League with convincing victories over Rocklands and Mulbarton.

Against Rocklands, 60 extras, mostly wides and no balls, helped Melton to total 141-1 but it was largely down to young Greenslade who carried his bat to record his maiden 50, his 59 including six fours.

Ben Carding chipped in with 14 and Rob Smith was unbeaten on eight. Melton then bowled out the home side for 40 in 11 overs, E Proctor scoring half Rocklands' runs.

There were two wickets each for Carding (2-2) and Greenslade (2-6), one for Ryan Howard (1-4) and Matt Rennie (1-8) plus a run-out.

Against Mulbarton at Melton Park last Monday Ryan Howard took 2-17 and Ben Carding 1-8 from their three overs as the visitors made 83-3, Sam Morton scoring an unbeaten 31.

While his brother Chris was scoring a 50 for the U15s against Diss on the other pitch, Joe Greenslade then notched his second unbeaten half-century with 51 not out in Melton's 84-1.

This time Joe hit eight fours and, after fellow opener Carding had departed early for two, he received good support from Rob Smith

who was again there at the end with 14 runs.

The two victories on successive days means that Melton U11 have won three out of three in the South Norfolk League.

Great Melton U15 beat Diss U15 by nine wickets at Melton Park in the Andy Seeley Trophy.

Half-centuries from George King and Chris Greenslade saw Great Melton U15 beat Diss by nine wickets and end their Andy Seeley Cup campaign with three wins in six games.

Diss scored an impressive 134-3 and it looked likely to be more despite a fine piece of fielding by Michael Farmer who threw the stumps down from cover to run out Kieron Pask off the first ball of the match.

His brother, who caused the run out, made amends with a blistering attack on the early Melton bowlers.

Darshan Rai and Joe Nicholson conceded 19 and 20 respectively in their two overs apiece as Diss raced to 67 off six overs.

Skipper George King took the pace off the ball by introducing Joe Bickel and Stuart Wilson and this did the trick with Bickle bowling Fairweather for 11 and Wilson taking 1-13 in four excellent overs.

By denying Pask the strike whenever possible, Melton kept the runs down but some big hitting at the end still enabled the visitors to score a daunting 134-3.

C Pask was unbeaten on 87 at the end of a very good innings.

Melton's opening pair of King and Greenslade batted superbly, however, and made short work of scoring the runs, their century partnership enabling Melton to win with nearly four overs to spare.

Greenslade was out near the end for an excellent 55 that included 10 fours while King was unbeaten on 59, an innings that included eight boundaries.

It just left Joe Bush to hit the winning four.