Horncastle book place in Dave Morris T20 Cup final

On Saturday they travelled north to take on Cleethorpes in the semi-final with the order of the day being two T20s with the overall winners advancing to that final.

Cleethorpes batted first in game number one and put up 131 all out.

Tom Hackett (3-10 off four) and Rich Hickling (2-15 off four) were the pick of the bowlers. Horncastle’s reply started badly with three wickets lost in the power play, but an excellent 32 from Hackett with support from Micheal Ackerman and N. Nelson took them close.

Cleethorpes rallied again and Horncastle fell agonisingly two runs short of victory, giving the hosts the upper hand.

Game two followed the same pattern with Cleethorpes again batting first.

This time they fared better and reached 148-4 from their 20 overs, Hackett again the pick of the bowlers with two more wickets.

Horncastle suffered another rocky start and the final was looking a million miles away.

Ackerman dug in and rebuilt with skipper Fraser Pemberton to give the visitors a glimmer of hope. Ackerman’s brilliance along with contributions from the middle order took the game to the last over.

Ackerman was run out for an incredible 60 in that final over.

Finn Fisher arrived late on and hit a vital 10 to take Horncastle within one from victory.

It was left to Rich Hickling to strike a boundary from his first ball to hit the winning runs and take Horncastle into the final on net run rate sparking wild scenes from the visitors.

The final will take place on Saturday, 8th August at Hartsholme Cricket Club.

In the Lincolnshire Premier Cricket League Premier Division, Woodhall Spa also inched themselves a little further away from the threat of relegation with a 20 point win over bottom placed Grantham.

Tayyab Tahir's 102 for Spa took his total runs for the season over 1,000.

This left Grantham well adrift at the bottom of the table with 95 points while Spalding in ninth have 125, Woodhall are eighth with 142 and Lindum are one above with 145.