Cuckney hit back against Hucknall after first defeat of season by Papplewick & Linby

A 57-run home defeat by Papplewick & Linby was followed by an eight wicket win over visiting Hucknall on Saturday.

Captain Tom Ullyott said: “We didn't execute things quite how we wanted to on Thursday, so the two-day turnaround helped us as, rather than stew on it for a week, we just had a day to get over it and get back on the horse.

“We managed to put in a really good team performance against Hucknall and won quite convincingly in the end.

“If we'd lost two games in a row in a short space of time that good start of ours could have run out pretty quickly.”

He added: “Against Papplewick it was probably a day where I made a few mistakes as captain – you live and you learn no matter how old you are or how many games you have played in.

“We were in with a shout the whole way in chasing it and we just lost wickets far too frequently. Every time we started to get a partnership together we lost two wickets and it was a bit criminal we didn't even get the two points at least.

“But we bounced back on Saturday and if you'd have said at the start of the season we'd win seven of our first eight, I would have taken that.”

On Thursday, the visitors were put into bat and responded superbly with 307-3, openers Louis Bhabra (120 not out) and Brent Williams (69) putting on 126 for the first wicket, Ben Trevor-Jones adding 34 and Freddie McCann 29.

In reply, Cuckney were 250 all out in 45 overs.

They lost their first two wickets with only seven runs on the board before Nick Langford (69) got to grips with the task.

Joseph Hayes also scored 67 with 39 for William Butler.

But the last three wickets fell for just five runs with Freddie McCann taking 3-27 and Gareth Blinkhorn 3-46.

However, Cuckney bounced straight back on Saturday as they again asked the visitors to bat and Hucknall made 242-8 in their 50 overs.

Mathew Roberts top-scored with 84, George Buckthorpe adding 37 and Waseem Fazal 28 while Nick Keast claimed 3-17 and Josh Porter 3-57.

Cuckney then won it with 246-2, William Butler scoring an unbeaten 86, Nick Keast 85, Ewan Laughton 29 and Nick Langford 26 not out. Connor Ramm took the only two wickets to fall with 2-50.

Cuckney remain top but saw their eight-point lead halved.

This Saturday they head for Radcliffe-on-Trent and Ullyott said: Radcliffe have one of our ex-players in Hawls (James Hawley) and they are always very tough to beat at home especially.

“I think we have lost a couple of games there over the last couple of seasons.

“We do not underestimate anyone in his league as, if they are on their game, anyone can beat anybody. We must make sure we take our A game there on Saturday.”