Lincolnshire go top of table after runaway win

The match, their fourth of the season and played at Granthamn, was a personal triumph for batsman Jack Timby, who marked his return to the side, as a late replacement for Chris Jones, with a magnificent maiden century for his county.

In hot and sunny weather, openers Timby and Joe Kendall gave Lincolnshire a sound start in their first innings with a stand of 80 before the latter was lbw for 41.

Louis Kimber, Bilal Shafayat and Conrad Louth were then dismissed for low scores as the innings subsided to 128-4 by the 40th over, but Timby remained and he shared another big stand, this time of 114 with Dan Freeman, before he finally fell for a solid 124.

Lincolnshire captain Carl Wilson then joined Freeman and they quickly upped the scoring rate, adding 128 in the final 23 overs of the innings. Freeman finished with 110no and Wilson with 59no as the hosts amassed 370-5 from their allotted 90 overs.

In reply, Northumberland lost two early wickets before Marcus Brown and Phil Mustard added 107 for the third wicket. So it was a relief when Mustard was caught by Freeman for 72, and when two further wickets tumbled, the visitors were reduced to 141-6 in the 49th over.

A recovery was mounted by Thomas Cant (58) and Callan McCabe (66), who shared a valuable 99 for the seventh wicket and helped to see Northumberland through to 291-9 at the death.

Lincolnshire’s objective in their second innings was to set a decent target but also leave adequate time to dismiss the opposition. At 112-6, they were only 191 ahead, but an unbroken stand between Freeman (63no) and James Kimber (33no) enabled them to declare on 237-7, setting Northumberland 317 to win in a minimum of 72 overs.

In truth, they were never in the hunt after slumping to 25-4 and 67-8 and they were dismissed for 131, with Alex Willerton taking 5-42 and Nick Keast 3-41. Lincolnshire’s next fixture is against Suffolk at Ipswich starting on Sunday.