The Rutland Cricket League is underway for 2020 though there were differing fortunes for Long Sutton and Spalding in Division Three.
Long Sutton returned to action in emphatic fashion with a huge nine wicket win over Oakham helped by a half century from Dan Oldfield.
There was no signs of rust from the Sutton bowlers as they dominated from the start, bowling their opponents out for 77 as competitive cricket returned to Paradise Field.
Barry Stanway led from the front ousting opener Simon Blazey for a duck and then caught and bowled number three Hans Mehta (5) as he claimed 2-13 from five overs.
Oakham’s other opener Mark Worthington (32) put up some resistance but Rob Simpson’s eight over spell yielded 3-24 to put the home side in charge.
Jake Burton (1-14 from eight) and Josh Baker (3-0 from five) kept the pressure on and helped dry up the run rate.
That set up Charlie Crisp to chip away at the tail.
He claimed 4-18 in 5.2 overs as Oakham were 77 all out in the 32nd over.
Sutton wasted little time in chasing that total down.
Oldfield hit eight fours and two sixes in his 51 before being stumped off the bowling of Nitesh Patel (1-9) with the win in sight.
Rajan Sangha (11) and Aaron John (1) sealed the win in what was just the 13th over and just 43rd in the match.
In the same division, Spalding came up just short against Castor and Ailsworth
Castor elected to bat when winning the toss and Spalding made early inroads when Brandon Andrews (2-22) and Will Naylor (1-24) claimed the wickets of the two openers.
Stuart Dockerill (40) and Connor Parnell (19) re-built though with a good partnership before both fell to the pick of the attack in Thomas DeCamps (3-26).
Wickets fell at regular intervals but a sterling counter attack from Ryan Evan (55) helped Castor to 144 before they were bowled out with four overs to spare.
Despite Spalding receiving those four overs to help with their chase, they came up six runs short.
They enjoyed a solid start through Jon Manton (27) and Ollie Dring (25) but then both fell to Ryan Evans.
He took all of the top five Spalding batsmen’s wickets to finish with 5-19 from eight overs.
Andrews (20) and Naylor (22) rallied but were bowled before the end as Spalding closed on 138-8 from 44 overs, claiming six points to Castor’s 16.
Spalding are due to visit Oakham this Sunday as the season continues with Long Sutton visiting Ketton.
