Improved Louth CC sunk by county bowler Willerton

Louth CC First XI slipped to the bottom of the Lincs ECB Premier despite a much improved performance with the ball and in the field at leaders Bracebridge Heath.

Batting first, the hosts regularly found the boundary in the opening stages as the Louth bowlers offered a little too much width.

A change of bowling brought the first wicket, however, when Tom Cuthbert had the opener caught behind by wicketkeeper Richard Bell.

With the Louth bowlers finding consistent line and length, and some clever fielding placements, scoring became harder and forced errors from the home batsmen.

Skipper Carrington and Cuthbert bowled a terrific 14-over spell, sharing four wickets as the home side slid from 123-1 to 148-5 courtesy of good catches from West, Medler and Cuthbert.

Louth were in with a sniff of bowling the opposition out for less than 200, but a quickfire half-century from Stubbs seized the initiative back until he was finally bowled by Tom Ryder for 57.

Good death bowling in the face of powerful hitting saw Ryder finish with four wickets which included an excellent catch from Paul Martin to leave the hosts 251 all out.

Chasing such a total was always going to be a challenge and so it proved as Lincolnshire county fast bowler Alex Willerton ran through the Louth top order.

His high quality pace bowling left the Wolves reeling at 20-5.

The Louth batsmen looked to take advantage when Willerton was removed from the attack.

Martin (39) and Wayne Garlick (21) played some attacking shots around the ground to move the score along to 96 before Willerton returned to finish off the Louth innings.

He claimed the last three wickets, and seven in total, as the visitors were dismissed for 97.

Louth now face a must-win match at fellow league strugglers Spalding on Saturday (noon start).

Many thanks to club sponsors Kenwick Park and matchball sponsors Tetney Golf Club.

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