Depleted Chesterfield crash to heavy defeat

Minus four of their first-choice batsmen against an experienced attack, Chesterfield crashed by 161 runs to last term’s runners-up after tumbling to 77 all out.

Initially, it was the hosts who struggled with the bat as the excellent new-ball duo, Josh Savage (4-77 in 15 overs) and Kieron Garside (3-44 in 12 overs), reduced them to 20-3. Savage produced one of his best early spells since joining the club, while Garside coped well with a difficult, spongy run-up.

By the 20th over, the hosts had limped to 59-3 and by the 30th over, they were doing no better on 117-6. But a magnificent partnership of 120 between man-of-the-match Ben Ashdown, who fired an impressive 92 (three sixes and eight fours), and Chris Windmill (54) changed the complexion of the game.

Chesterfield did maintain their high-energy out-cricket, producing some terrific catches, most notably a scorcher from Paul ‘The Cat’ Goodwin. But the Spondon duo got on top of the bowlers and steered their side to a total of 238-9, helped also by 37 extras, including 24 wides.

Despite a dogged start by young openers Luke Baddeley (16) and Alex Fowkes, Chesterfield’s reply never got going, and a steady stream of wickets fell to Joe Ashdown (4-34), Windmill (3-9) and Tom Williams (2-16).

The only other batsman to reach double figures was Drage Thompson with 17.