Leatherday and McCollum see out Cutthorpe innings at Eckington

Skipper David Bush won the toss and after morning rain, and the threat of further rain throughout the afternoon, decided to bowl first.

This meant that Derbyshire CC captain Billy Godleman would come to the crease at the outset for the hosts. He immediately showed his class with a number of well-timed drives, and with his opening partner Danny State, Eckington got off a good start.

The pair took the score to 56 before Asad Butt (3-44) found the outside edge of State, and he was well caught at slip by Matt Cluer for 17.

Godleman continued to strike the ball very cleanly and, in partnership with Eckington overseas player Johan Davel, the scoring rate increased and Cutthorpe knew a breakthrough was required.

It came when Steve Chapman managed to entice Godleman into another drive through the offside and he was well caught at cover by Josh Savage for 54.

Both Butt and Chapman were now bowling very well and the pressure paid off when Butt took two wickets in two balls. First, he nicked off Archie Gleadall for just one, an excellent catch by wicket keeper Paul Burdett.

With his next ball he also dismissed Eckington captain Tom Dawson who clipped a full toss towards mid wicket where Bush took a diving catch. The score was now 87-4 and Cutthorpe had really pulled it round.

Davel (29) and Liam Musselwhite (33) rebuilt the innings well and the score moved onto 123 before Davel miscued through the offside off Josh Savage (1-67) and Andy Thompson took a good low catch. Eckington continued to try and up the tempo of the innings but Cutthorpe bowled and fielded well and were able to restrict Eckington to what looked like being a sub 200 score.

Musselwhite, Lewis Staniforth (22) and Alfie Gleadall were all out to Chapman late on who returned excellent figures of 4-65 off 15 overs. However, some late hitting by Luke Dawson, who made 23* off 15 balls, saw Eckington to 207-9 from 50 overs.

Due to a number of rain delays in the first innings Cutthorpe knew they would no longer have 50 overs in reply to chase the score and the game would finish at 7.30pm.

This would soon look to be blessing though as Cutthorpe slipped to 3-3. Burdett was given out caught behind from the first ball of the innings and when Alfie Gleadall (3-14) had Chapman caught at cover and bowled Thompson two balls later Cutthorpe were in real bother. The rot wasn’t to stop there either. Savage was dubiously given out LBW when it seemed clear he had hit the ball and Matt Cluer was the second victim for Nathan Musselwhite (2-33), the score was now 24-5.

From here the rest of the batting showed excellent application. Kev Leatherday, who had witnessed the capitulation of the top order from the non-strikers end, did the majority of the scoring and, in partnership with Asad Butt, they took a decent chunk of time out of the game and took the score to 49 before Butt was LBW to Adam Leonard (2-45).

Liam Sadler joined Leatherday and did a good job in blunting the Eckington attack before he was Leonard’s second LBW.

From here, Leatherday and John McCollum put on a fantastic rear-guard performance to see Cutthorpe home to the 7.30pm cut off. The score ended on 105-7 from 32 overs, with Leatherday making 74*. The partnership was 37 and McCollum had faced 21 balls without scoring. The end result was Cutthorpe took away a crucial 10 points from the game, Eckington finishing with 13. Next week, Cutthorpe travel to Rolleston.

On Sunday, Cuthorpe hosted Kimberley Institute of the Nottinghamshire Premier League for a place in the Derbyshire Premier Cup quarter-finals. Cutthorpe 187-5 (Leatherday 81, Burdett 38) lost to Kimberley 190-2 (Johnson 102*, Bacon 59*).