Chesterfield batsmen give Ticknall's seam aces the runaround

WILL POWER -- another boundary for Chesterfield batsman Will Davis, who fired an unbeaten half-century against Ticknall.

After posting a big total of 287-9 in their allotted 50 overs, with three players making half-centuries, Chesterfield looked to be heading for a comfortable victory when they reduced Ticknall’s reply to 130-7. But they were frustrated by late-order defiance and had to settle for a winning draw (20 points) as their opponents finished on 197-8 at the end of an excellent day’s cricket.

With the strip looking greener than the usual Queen’s Park pitch, it looked a good toss to win for Ticknall, especially as they were fielding three fine seamers in Tom Taylor and Tony Palladino, who had played for Derbyshire in their County Championhips match at Hove days earlier, and also ex-Leicestershire man Alex Wyatt, now playing for Shropshire.

But after losing an early wicket, when Taylor bowled Ben Slater, Chesterfield recovered well to seize the initiative. Nitish Kumar (58, one six and six fours) and talented youngster Mykylo Bird (38, six fours) took the attack to the opposition in a quickfire partnership of 55, and then Alex Hibbert joined Kumar to lift the score to a healthy 152-2 after 30 overs.

Hibbert received warm applause from the crowd for his 57, which included six boundaries, and after a mini-slide to 180-5, the hosts took command again as Will Davis and captain Drage Thompson shared an aggressive stand of 60 with some magnificent, controlled hitting. Thompson thumped 41, featuring two sixes and six fours, from only 20 balls, while Davis finished unbeaten on 51 (one six and five fours).

As for Ticknall’s three bowling stars, all took a hammering. Taylor finished with figures of 3-105 from 13 overs, Palladino with 2-60 from 12 and Wyatt with 1-35 from nine. Their batsmen fared little better as opener Paul Borrington went for a duck and then two wickets fell to Matt Higginbottom (2-37) off successive balls, including that of highly-rated Derbyshire 2nd player Tom Wood (17).

Wickets continued to tumble, notably to Michael Dean (2-39), who produced a terrific spell, and Brian Gladwin (2-12), with Paul Goodwin also taking a remarkable catch. But Chesterfield were denied by the resistance of Palladino (44, one six and six fours) and skipper Scott Chilman (20no), who shared a match-saving partnership of 66 for the eighth wicket.