KENILWORTH CC suffered an agonising two-run defeat after they were bowled out for 221 with just eight balls of the match remaining against local rivals Leamington’s 2nd XI.
Leamington recovered from 66-5 as Jack Hawkes (91) and Dan Williams (60) shared 133 runs in a crucial sixth-wicket partnership to reach 223-7 with Connor Shingler took 2-34, Stuart Cope 2-41, Joe Atkinson 2-48 and Steve Rhodes 1-26 taking the wickets.
Kenilworth’s run chase began with Atkinson’s 70 and Cope’s 57 as the pair shared a century stand for the first wicket.
However, after both men left the crease, a mid-order wobble saw the Leamington bowlers take control only for Kenilworth to fight back to within sight of victory.
Henry Curran hit 14 and number 10 Jack Howard made a fine 31 only for the dup to both succumb to the bowling of Aditya Gokhale who secured a narrow two-run win for Leamington.
Elsewhere, Kenilworth’s 2nd XI secured a stunning 20-run win against Attleborough after Ben Clarke took three wickets in the final over with his final wicket coming on the last ball of the match.
Attleborough looked well-placed to win at 154-4 chasing Kenilworth’s 183-9 but lost their last six wickets in the space of 20 balls to be bowled out for 163 as Clarke and Sam Leach ripped through the tail with the ball, aided by a sharp run out from Charlie Stranks.
Leach took 2-23, whilst Clarke ended on 3-24 with an incredible treble wicket maiden last over. He, too, had earlier ran out a batsman whilst Tom Skinner had taken a fine 3-34 from his 12 overs.
Kenilworth had Stranks (62) and Adie Sellar (47) to thank for their total with Danny Boneham (13), Dan Horner (12) and Clarke (11 not out) all chipping in with useful knocks.
However, Coventry Blues proved far too strong for Kenilworth’s 3rd XI as they racked up 251-5 in their 40 overs and then bowled Kenilworth out for 137 in reply.
Lineesh hit 71, Jobin 61, Rajan 51 not out and Raj 44 in the Blues’ total despite the best efforts of Town’s Tarun Ahuja who took a fine 4-33 from his spell and Nick Moore taking the other wicket to fall.
In reply, Dhruv Vyas shone with the bat for Kenilworth making a delightful 63 and Steve Kelley 33 but they were the only batters to reach double figures as the others were unable to cope with accuracy of Kandy 4-25, Jose 3-32, Elippatta 2-19 and Sudhakaran 1-29 always finding runs hard to come by and the side were bowled out on the final ball of the match for 137 and a very long way away from the target score.
