Over Peover 1st 92 reduced to 46

Castrol 47 for 5

DISAPPOINTING batting cost Over Peover the Shammah Nicholls 1st XI Knock-Out Cup on Sunday.

Instead Castrol, leaders of Division One (West), triumphed by five wickets at Alderley Park in a final badly affected by rain.

Choosing to bat under a leaden sky Peover made a solid start as Danny Ruddock (22), John Bodimeade (11) and Kirby Whittaker, crucially run out for 25, took the score to 71 for 3 after 18 overs.

Castrol's man of the match Keith Garrett then turned the game as he took a hat-trick in his first over and four wickets fell with the score on 75.

Peover never recovered and were all out for 92 in the 29th of their 40 overs having lost seven wickets for a mere 17 runs.

Defending their low total gamely, Peover took the first wicket with six on the board, but at 13 for 1 after six overs, the rains came.

After an 85 minute delay play resumed with barely three minutes to spare, before the match would have been abandoned.

Peover's score was adjusted to 46 and the overs to 20 simplifying Castrol's task considerably.

But Peover fought hard, Danny Ruddock taking three wickets for one run off his four overs, including two in two balls, and Neil Mills 2 for 11.

With so few runs needed, Castrol reached their target in the 17th over for the loss of five wickets, led by Darren Green with 25 not out, and returned to Ellesmere Port with the cup, leaving Peover to rue what might have been.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.