Ellerslie’s 4th XI continued their success in the Development Division with victory against Caythorpe.

Having batted first in their previous outing at Little Bounds a fortnight before, Caythorpe chose to field upon winning the toss. Finlay Hulbert opened the innings with Matthew Cawley for Ellerslie. The visitors took a wicket early on as Jake O’Neill bowled Cawley on 1 in the second over. Aman Chahal joined Hulbert at the crease and played a mature knock facing 23 deliveries to see the new ball off. The batsmen added 34 runs for the second wicket before O’Niell struck again. With the first delivery of the tenth over, he bowled Chahal. Two balls later, he sent Jimmy Levitsky back to the changing room as the scoreboard stood at 36/3.

It was up to Jack Webb to rebuild the innings and he did so watchfully, collecting every single bye on offer. At the other end, Hulbert continued his batting masterclass and sent the bad balls to the fence while resisting the good ones. When his half-century was complete, Hulbert retired with the scoreboard on 98/3 at the end of the 19th over. Promoted up the order after his heroics against Gotham a week ago, Sam Lowe hit Noah Keetley for four before falling LBW to the same bowler.

In at six, Sachin Mathivanan dived wildly to survive a close runout call only to be dismissed LBW on 1 by Khawar Niaz. The next ball saw Niaz bowl Finlay Traynor and left Ellerslie on 121/6. Ethan Scott was the next batsman in. Having anchored the innings, Webb retired on 36 at the end of the 28th over, bringing Laura Wilson to the middle. She got off the mark with a handsome boundary over square leg before being caught behind the stumps by Alex Parker. When Scott departed two balls later, Hulbert returned to finish the innings alongside in-form skipper Adam Newell who belted three boundaries and a six to take Ellerslie to 188/8.

After lunch, Caythorpe opened with Sachin Mistry and Atul Mistry. It was always going to be a stiff chase and Wilson did not make it any easier for the batsmen. She got S. Mistry to lob one to Newell at mid-off and then bowled Parker right through his defences in back to back deliveries, reducing the visitors to 20/2 by the end of the fifth over. Scott struck next when Oliver Henshaw gave Newell his sixth catch in seven days. In the following over, Khawar Niaz mistimed Wilson straight to mid-on where Mathivanan fumbled a sitter, costing Wilson a well-earned three-wicket haul.

Dropped on 4, Niaz topscored for his side adding another 40 runs to his name. However, the bowlers kept chipping away at the other end, denying Caythorpe the big partnership they needed. Levitsky dismissed A. Mistry on 17 at the end of the fifteenth over and Lowe bowled N. Keetley three balls later to keep the visitors at 70/5. Dave Keetley helped Niaz put on 20 runs for the sixth wicket, but Cawley had him stumped with his sharp turn. In the next over, Newell brought Mathivanan into the attack and O’Niell was bowled in the same fashion he himself had bowled three batsmen earlier in the day. Then, Cawley trapped Niaz LBW before Webb took two clean catches at short mid-off to wrap up the innings at 120 and win the match by 68 runs.

Unbeaten in the first three weeks of the summer, Ellerslie will take much confidence into their derby against West Bridgfordians at Little Bounds next Sunday.