Chestefield CC slump to big defeat at Sandiacre

Chesterfield's problems on the road continued when they failed to make any impression in chasing a sizeable Sandiacre score on Saturday as they fell short by 111 runs.

After electing to bowl first, Chesterfield’s Matt Higginbottom and Michael Deane bowled tightly but, while runs were scarce, wickets were even more so as the Sandiacre openers dug in to see off the new ball.

After a difficult hour the batsmen started to accelerate and the blossoming partnership had advanced to 180 before George Curtis was out for 87.

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Higginbottom quickly followed up this initial success bowling new batsman Dan Birch and similarly accounting for James Chapman for 97.

Other batsmen struggled with wickets falling at regular intervals in the closing overs with the notable exception of Dan Wheeldon whose quick fire 52 included a series of sixes inflicting collateral damage through windows, one into a passing car and one into the lounge of a house on the far side of the road bordering the ground.

Higginbottom stuck to his task with commendable effort and was rewarded with a return of 5-63.

The Chesterfield reply started of disastrously with a couple of optimistic lbw appeals being upheld against Mykylo Bird and Ross Whiteley, while Nitish Kumar nicked one to the keeper.

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26-3 became 52-5 with the dismissals of Ben Slater (21) and Harvey Hosein (16) before Alex Hibbert and Higginbottom settled in with a sixth wicket partnership that looked secure for over an hour and had added 72 before Hibbert (23) was adjudged leg before.

This ushered in another collapse as a further three wickets fell for two runs and only an enterprising last wicket partnership delayed the inevitable but not before Chesterfield had secured a second batting point to close at 155 all out.

The paltry return of five points in contrast to Sandiacre’s 27 left Chesterfield still in the lower half of the table and the search for the first win of the season now switches to Queen’s Park on Saturday with the visit of Ticknall.