Househam leads Louth charge in victory over Brocklesby Park

Louth were invited to bowl and an uncharacteristic poor start saw them gifting runs and dropping catches which meant bottom-placed Park were on top for a considerable early period.

Louth couldn’t find an answer to their aggressive style of batting and runs flowed freely.

Tom Corden (4-36) was the pick of the early bowlers, removing three of the top four Park batsmen.

However, Park found themselves on 141-4 with 27 overs to go and in a strong position.

Louth found a way to build some pressure via tighter bowling from Stu West (4-39), Jason Collinson (1-20) and Oli Shufflebotham that brought about wickets, but the runs kept flowing, Park reaching a challenging above average 241 before being bowled out.

Louth set about chasing the target but found themselves 25-2.

G. West and Henry Househam put on 81 with ease, but G. West fell for 24 with Louth on 106, still needing 135.

Collinson and Househam shared another valuable partnership of 76 before Collinson fell for 29, and man of the match Househam was unfortunately run out for a classy and match-winning 96.

That left Tom Corden (33 not out) and Ethan Garner (11 not out) to finish off the 41 runs needed, which they did faultlessly and ruthlessly, particularly Corden hitting 33 from just 22 balls.

Louth completed a memorable chase in the 43rd over in front of hundreds of patrons at the Louth Lions Beer Festival.

Louth seconds travelled to Cherry Willingham hoping to bounce back to winning ways but were beaten by 64 runs.

Cherry decided to bat, but it was a fine welcome back for K. Adams, who struck twice in his first spell of bowling to give Louth a good start and positive inspiration to restrict Cherry to a low total.

P. Sellathanby (42) stuck to the task to keep the scoreboard ticking over before he was dismissed LBW by Koen.

Cherry lost more wickets and in the 38th over Louth were looking in a good position to bowl out the opposition for less then 140, but the last wicket stand pushed Cherry to 177-9.

Louth started positively in reply with D. Jacklin and M. Duell.

After D. Jacklin fell, runs dried up and Louth's scoring rate was slow with tight bowling making it hard to score runs.

Louth's batters started well but kept losing wickets and, just like the heat, it was too much for Louth as they were all out for 113, R. Koen making 30 not out.

Man of the match was K. Adams for his six over spell in the heat for 2-13.