Chesterfield relegation fears grow after Cutthorpe hammering

The loss at Cutthorpe on Saturday by 152 runs means that they have a real fight on their hands to avoid relegation as they are now in tenth place in the league, just six points above eleventh placed Lullington Park.

Cutthorpe’s haul of 27 points takes them to eighth place and nineteen points above Chesterfield.

Once again Chesterfield were unable to play anything like their strongest side with six players unavailable.

Chesterfield won the toss and elected to bowl. They had an early success when Matthew Cluer hit a skier to deep cover off Michael Deane – sixteen year old Luke Baddeley had to sprint to get underneath it and cope with a strong wind. He eventually dived to get under it to take a stunning catch.

At 13/11 Kevin Leatherday and Sufian Munir batted very carefully against good opening spells from the reliable pair of Michael Deane and Matthew Higginbottom. Cutthorpe were restricted to 26/1 after 10 overs and 68/1 after 20 overs. Leatherday was then run out for 26 with the score at 68/2.

This was followed by a stand of 94 between Munir and Paul Burdett when the latter was out contributing 16 runs.

Sufian Munir was producing an innings of real class and intelligence.

This was only his third game for Cutthorpe after his signing from Ordsall Bridon CC and he looks to be a great addition to their squad.

He was eventually out for a magnificent 116 off just 107 balls, including 17 fours and two huge sixes.

He received a great ovation from appreciative spectators when he walked back to the pavilion with the score on 185/5.

Cutthorpe had established a base to go on to a huge total but, to their credit, Chesterfield stuck to their task. Jonny Marsden, the Oxford University fast bowler had produced some real pace earlier in the innings, which the Cutthorpe batsmen had survived but in his second spell against lower order batsmen he was too much for them to cope with. 212/5 soon became 228/9 after 50 overs, with Marsden claiming four wickets – all bowled, including two in two balls. His figures of 4-38 off twelve overs made him the pick of the Chesterfield bowlers.

The Cutthorpe innings will be remembered for the innings of Sufian Munir who, in hitting 116, contributed over half to the innings total.

There were good contributions from Leatherday and Andrew Thompson who remained not out on 24 whilst wickets were falling around him.

Chesterfield had done well under the circumstances to restrict Cutthorpe to 228 but the big issue for the second week was how their young, inexperienced batsmen would cope with a good Cutthorpe bowling outfit.

The answer was unfortunately not long in coming as 1/1 became 6/4 and then 22/5 became 42/9.

Only experienced Matt Higginbottom and captain Drage Thompson (who hit a belligerent 24 off 25 balls including two sixes) managed double figures.

The Cutthorpe opening bowlers of Asadullah Butt and Josh Savage bowled really well and would have been a handful for the most experienced batsmen in the league.