Chris Dring came agonisingly close to setting a new Spalding Town club record on Saturday as he scored an incredible 150 not out in a memorable second team success over Billingborough.
Having taken 3-16 to help dismiss South Lincs and Border League Premier Division title hopefuls Billingborough for 244 on their own patch, Dring’s heroics earned Town their latest – and most impressive – win of the campaign to date.
Amazingly, he fell just one run shy of the club record score for a Spalding Town batsmen. That honour still belongs to Peter Clark, who made 151 not out against Long Sutton back in 1989.
Veteran Spalding 2nd skipper Mike Kearns Snr rates Dring’s innings as one of the best he’s ever seen – and has backed his star man to make a return to the first team fold.
Kearns said: “That was truly one of the best knocks I’ve ever seen from a club player in all the years I’ve been playing.
“Chris’s performance showed us all what is possible with good application. Full credit to him, it was an outstanding performance.
“I’ve reported on Chris’s performance to first team captain Rob Ambrose, who no doubt will be giving him a call to discuss a well-earned call up to the first team in due course.”
Visitors Spalding won the toss and elected to field – only to face a barrage of shotmaking from the Billingborough openers Chris King (36) and Mitch Griffiths (84).
With Boro’ at 70 without loss after 11 overs, a swift change of tactics and the introduction of slow bowling soon began to pay dividends by making the ball harder to get away.
Jim Clarke (0-36 off 11 overs) slowed down the run rate, with opening bowler Sanjay Tott – asked to change his bowling style from medium pace to spin – also paying dividends as he returned with figures of 4-67.
The introduction of Spalding’s 14-year-old spinner Jonny Manton, a product of the successful Spalding Cricket Academy, kept the pressure on the Billingborough batsmen as they had to force pace on the ball. His spell of 3-62 helped change the game.
However, it was a smart spell of spin bowling from the experienced Dring soon had Billingborough’s Shaun Brown (44) smartly stumped by Kearns Snr, a wicket that helped finish off the
Billingborough resistance to leave them all out on 244.
After tea, Town’s response with the bat was emphatic with Kearns Snr (16) creaming a first-ball cover drive for four.
After that, an injury to fellow opener Rob Noble (25) brought man-of-the-match Dring to the crease for what was going to be his finest hour to date with the bat.
As Boro’ persevered with four slips, a gully and pace bowling, Dring majestically and relentlessly drove, pulled, clipped and cut the bowling attack to all four corners of the ground.
Building partnerships with promising 14-year-old Patrick Harrington (15) and Matt Sharpe (17 not out), centurion Dring saw Spalding over the line with 4.4 overs to spare.
Kearns added: “I told the team at tea that I wanted us to bat aggressively in the mould of how we have been seeing England play of late – and that’s exactly what they all did.
“The attitude of the squad of players we have is outstanding under pressure and it’s a true pleasure to have the honour of being their skipper.
“I believe now that, as a team, we are beginning to find the right mix of youth, experience and desire and I expect us to kick on and obtain some more good results in the coming weeks.”
- Saturday: Town 2nd v Sleaford 2nd (1.30pm).
