Lake stars as Louth win last over thriller opener against Nettleham

Electing to bat, young Alfie West and Michael Brown opened for Louth.

Nettleham's opening bowlers were rewarded with an early wicket of West (5) which brought to the crease Ethan Garner.

Brown and Garner faced a disciplined and attritious bowling attack very well, but Nettleham’s consistent bowling brought about Garner's (26) wicket after making a promising start.

This was the start of a mini collapse from Louth, losing four wickets for only five runs, leaving Louth 53-5 and in trouble.

Koen and Househam put on a hard-fought 30 before Koen fell for 10 and Househam soon after for a solid 27 which left Louth 97-7 and looking like posting a sub-par score.

However, last season's acquisition, Lake, came to the crease and he took the attack to Nettleham with free-flowing stroke play, bringing up his 50 off just 32 balls.

Ably supported by J. Brindle, P. Byrne and P. Grayson, he managed to drag Louth out of trouble by hitting an excellent 79 off 62 balls, including six sixes, getting Louth to a respectable 186 before being bowled out in the 48th over, which was still a challenging total to defend.

Lake and Byrne took the new ball and Lake, following on from his excellent batting, took two wickets in two balls in his first over.

Nettleham steadied their ship with an 80 partnership, only broken by the introduction of Sachin West's leg spin, neatly stumped by Garner.

West, in partnership with Koen, kept things tight with the game in the balance.

West managed to pick up another wicket, leaving him with figures of 2-46 off his 10 overs, with Koen 0-34.

Louth's defence of their total was momentarily hindered when Brown dislocated his finger attempting to stop a ball.

Luckily a doctor in the crowd was able to put his finger back in and Brown showed great commitment to come back onto the field a few overs later, finger heavily strapped.

With the game in the balance and clearly going all the way till the end, Lake and captain Collinson returned to try to see the game out, Lake managing to find some pace and energy to remove two more Nettleham batters, leaving him with figures of 4-25.

Collinson took the last over, needing to defend 1 2runs.

With five runs coming off the first three balls, Nettleham needed seven to win.

A run out off the fourth ball, and a restriction of two runs off the next two balls won the game for Louth by five runs.

It was a great game of cricket played in good spirits and in front of many supporters gripped by the closeness of the game.

Player of the match was Lake for his astonishing match-winning performance with both bat (79) and ball (4-25).

Louth host Lindum CC this weekend at London Road Pavilion. Start time 12.30 and bar open from 2pm.