Gainsborough lose crunch match to Farnsfield after three wicket defeat

The players hold a one minute silence for the Nottingham atrocities.

In an early season crunch match between two sides in the bottom half of the Bassetlaw & District League Division One table Gainsborough lost by three wickets at Farnsfield on Saturday.

Coming off the back of a well deserved victory against Anston last week, Gainsborough were keen to maintain momentum.

After losing the toss Gainsborough were put into bat on a green wicket at a traditionally high scoring ground.

Openers Purdy and Tittley got the side off to a solid start, punishing any bad balls and had a stand of 47 before the skipper was caught at gully.

With Keightley out for a duck, Andrews got back to form with an excellent 50.

At the other end Purdy was dismissed with an LBW decision that Gainsborough felt would have been reviewed and overturned in a professional match.

Andrews was support by a fine knock from Cooper before he was caught for 32.

After Andrews was caught behind, the tail was able to add a further 30 runs before Bingham was run out, ending the innings on 176 all out.

With Gainsborough feeling as if they had left some runs out there, they took to the field still feeling confident of defending their total.

However, the Farnsfield openers had other ideas.

Although the opening overs from Smith and Keightley weren’t their best, Ainger simply threw caution to the wind scoring 31 from 16 balls to propel the Farnsfield chase.

After Ainger missed a straight one from Keightley, Gainsborough’s Smith then took two quick wickets, bringing the game back into the balance.

Opener Goss was then joined by Hall who steadied the ship and formed a match winning partnership.

Despite some tight bowling from Roberts and Lobley, which eventually led to the breakthrough, the Farnsfield tail-enders were able to knuckle down and knock off the final few runs with eight overs to spare.

Despite a great effort with the ball and taking seven wickets, Gainsborough were ultimately a few runs short of being able to put pressure onto Farnsfield.

However, Gainsborough seconds were able to record their first victory of the season at home to Blyth.

The home side were able to amass 140 runs with Ward-Lowery, Olsen, Hatfield, Ramirez-Capes and Newton all chipping in with significant contributions with the bat.

Some excellent bowling saw Blyth capitulate to 49 all out, with captain Roberts being the pick of the bowlers with four wickets.

This Saturday Gainsborough first team travel to Thoresby, whilst the second team host Cuckney at Marshalls.