Grimston remain top of Division Four

Grimston Cricket Club had three hardball teams in action this weekend, with the Saturday team hosting Denver CC’s second team, the Sunday team hosting Bircham CC, and the Lions team away to North Runcton.The Grimston “Clean Tech” Cricket ground was bathed in sunlight for Saturday’s showdown with Denver, who won the toss and chose to bat, opening with Stuart Merritt and Alex Hamilton.Merritt went on to score 21 while Hamilton was unfortunate to be undone by some superb fielding, run-out by Mark Pickering early in his innings.Mark Tilbrook claimed four victims with the ball, proving that he is a true all-rounder after scoring consecutive double-hundreds in recent weeks.Miles Harris, 14, also performed well, taking three wickets and showing that the future is bright.Paul Scott and Luke Fenn both scored well for Denver, with 24 and 21 runs respectively, with the innings ending 114 all-out.Grimston were quickly reduced to 25-2. However, captain Andrew Tilbrook steadied the ship with a match-winning 33 runs, Ben Wilson also contributed 28 runs before being caught by Giles Lewis off the bowling of Alex Hamilton. Father and Son duo Tim and Mark Tilbrook saw the team over the line, with Mark Tilbrook scoring 10 runs from two balls to secure the win and remain top of Division Four.The Lions team were visitors to North Runcton in a good-spirited match, with captain Sam Adkin winning the toss and choosing to bowl first.Opening batters Jacob Hancock and Jacob Booth put in a superb effort, scoring 68 and 59 runs before retiring, with Jacob Lockheart adding another 50 runs to the total. The Lions rotated their bowling options with eight different bowlers, the standout of whom was 12-year-old debutant Isaac Grief, whose third over was a maiden.North Runcton scored 262/1 in their 30 overs. Lions opened the batting in explosive style with George Hanna crunching two boundaries in quick succession before falling victim to youngster Toby Ring.From then, the run rate dropped as Sam Adkin slowly built a total, ably assisted by Isaac Grief, who put in a solid performance before being bowled by Harry Waite. Elaine Oldroyd and Lauren Shepherdly saw out the innings, both finishing not-out, while Adkin had top-scored with 32 runs from 71 balls.Lions scored 94/5.As the Lions match finished, the Sunday first team match was heating up in a delicately poised encounter.Grimston had batted first and scored a defendable 185 all out, including 55 from James Allitt and 25 from Miles Harris, and Bircham progressed to 161-7, before two quick wickets fell to James Allitt.At 180-9, the match was on a knife-edge until Sam Witton blazed two boundaries to secure the win with 189/9 in the 37th over. Osca Davies top-scored for Bircham with 51 runs.