Driffield 1st XI suffered a crushing defeat at Kings Mill Road on Saturday when they were on the wrong end of a thrilling contest against Doncaster.
Had both sets of players looked at the forecast that had been predicted by the weathermen, then they wouldn’t have bothered to turn up.
However, the rain failed to materialise and the game started on time with Driffield’s stand-in skipper Danny Broumpton winning the toss and electing to bowl first.
After a poor start to their innings, Doncaster will have been happy with their batting performance, as they amassed 241 before being dismissed in the 52nd over.
Despite several wickets falling around him, former Yorkshire player Simon Widdup dealt with the responsibility with aplomb, as he scored 41 from his opening slot.
However, the innings of the day came from middle-order batsman Felix Odell. Odell managed to swing the momentum back into Doncaster’s favour with a crucial 88 from 84 balls, including eight fours and one six. Support for Odell came from his captain Alex Gosney, who made a patient 44.
The pick of the bowling for Driffield was part-time off-spinner Sam Drury, who picked up the big wickets of Odell and Gosney before finishing with figures of 4-11, whilst opening bowler Tom Chippendale picked up 3-33.
Driffield’s reply got off to the worst possible start when Pakistani overseas player Abid Ali was dismissed by the first ball of the innings and they were in further trouble when they were reduced to 46-3 by the Doncaster attack.
However, hope was restored when cousins Sam and George Drury came together at the crease.
The pair made 81 for the fourth wicket before George departed for 44, whilst Sam soon followed him back to the pavilion for 45.
Broumpton kept the momentum of the innings going in his side’s favour with a battling 42, whilst Chippendale played a crucial role as he made 29 to leave the final pair of Nick Johnson and Ollie Ezard needing one run to win the game with ample overs in hand.
But the victory wasn’t to be for Driffield when Johnson was run out as he looked to take an ill-advised quick single to Widdup, who showed his pedigree by throwing down the stumps with Johnson short of making his ground.
2nd XI
Driffield 2nd XI came away from table-toppers Hull Zingari with a losing draw, although they were out-classed in all disciplines by Alastair Markham’s side.
After put into bat by Driffield captain Andrew Chapman, Zingari posted a formidable total of 248-9 from their 48 overs. Top-scorer for the home side was Jack Storey whose innings of 79 saw him pass the 1000 run-mark for the season.
Other significant runs for Zingari came from the bat of Anthony Knowles who made 54 in the middle-order to boost his side’s score.
Jamie Hopper was the pick of the Driffield bowling attack as he picked up figures of 3-59 from his 12 over spell, whilst medium-pacer Rob Woodcock also managed to prize out three batsmen for the cost of 78 runs.
After a fine opening stand of 96 between John Robinson and Tom Norman, Driffield looked to in the running to cause a major upset. However, when first Robinson departed for 57 and was then closely followed by Norman for 39, the momentum of Driffield’s innings was never fully restored as the rest of the batsmen scored just 56 runs between to finish on 152-6.
The bowling of Guy Martinson proved to be troublesome for the Driffield batsmen, and he finished with figures of 3-34.
3rd XI
Driffield 3rd XI’s chance of promotion from York Senior League Division now looks slimmer than ever after Hovingham inflicted a demoralising eight-wicket defeat on them.
Driffield’s day got off to a good start when after losing the toss they were asked to bat first and made a commanding total of 240-9, before skipper James Richardson declared after one ball of the final over.
The bulk of the home side’s runs were scored by Kevin Woodcock, who played a fantastic innings of 104, his first century of the season. Woodcock’s innings included 11 fours and 4 sixes.
The middle-order duo of Neil Woodcock and Richardson provided the rest of Driffield’s runs, with Woodcock hitting 46 before Richardson made a quick-fire 33.
Tom Lund and the appropriately named Richard Bowling were the pick of the bowlers for Hovingham with figures of 3-35 and 3-58 respectively.
However, despite making a good total, Driffield’s bowlers were put to the slaughter by Hovingham opening batsmen David Bowling and Richard Hudson.
The pair scored a mammoth 236 for the first wicket, without even giving the Driffield fielders a chance to dismiss them. Hudson played an incredible innings of 147 which included an amazing 21 fours and 6 sixes before he departed with victory in sight for his side.
Bowling played a fantastic supporting role, as he saw the job through by finishing the innings unbeaten on 69.
Monday
It was a bad day for the club on Monday, with only the fourth team registering a win.
Driffield 1st XI lost to Cleethorpes by 109 runs
Cleethorpes 268-9 (Inderjit Hayre 54, David Mansfield 63, Alex Osmond 44, Tom Keast 32, Ian Mansfield 32, Dave Brent 4-66.)
Driffield 159 (Ben Kohler-Cadmore 42, Nicky Johnson 29, Dave Brent 27, Graham Hume 4-44, Alex Osmond 5-52.)
The 2nd XI lost to Whitkirk by three wickets
Driffield 245-7 (Owen Goldsworthy 68*, Ricky Woodmansey 56, Andrew Chapman 34, Grant Halder 30).
Whitkirk 246-7 ( D. Tubby 57*, R. Simpson 48, S. Parker 41, Jamie Hopper 4-65.)
3rd XI lost to Sessay II by seven wickets
Driffield 149-6 (James Richardson 62*)
Sessay II 152-3 (Darren Atkinson 29, John Flintoff 45*, Matthew Wass 49)
4th XI beat Pelican by 279 runs
Driffield 350-4 (Josh Hopper 155*, James Foster 114, Isaac Wilkes 29, James Barron 26)
Pelican 71 (James Smedley 47, Michael Nicholson 6-16.)