A fighting partnership by John Upton and Nick Reed rescued Market Drayton from the wreckage of 4-5 to earn 10 points from a Shropshire Cricket League draw against Frankton.
Drayton’s terrible start was largely down to Steve David, who ripped through the top order as they set about chasing Frankton’s 252-9 declared in 50 overs.
Skipper Reed and Upton, were both in excellent form as they took the score to 165 before Reed was out for a magnificent 95.
Richard Davies joined Upton and they took the score to 179-6, which gave Drayton their best points haul of the season so far.
Upton’s 51 not out in two and a half hours, was, first and foremost, a match-saving innings made after such an awful start.
Frankton had batted first and took advantage of some slack bowling.
There were useful scores from J. Cappell (48), D. Powell (34) and J. Brooks (28) while De Silva boosted the run rate with a quick 85.
For Drayton, both Matt Heffernan and James Coggins were by far the best bowlers, Heffernan taking 5-87 off 20 overs and Coggins 4-42 off 12 overs.
The match was sponsored by J F E Upton.
Drayton 2nd XI batted first in their division five match against Willey and excellent innings from Sam Allen (74 not out), Charles Harrison (62) and a quick 41 from Darren Kent took them to 215-7 off 45 overs.
Chad Roberts and Arminder Birt helped the score along with 10 each.
Willey were struggling but held out on 124-9. Sam Allen capped a fine day’s cricket with 3-14, Darren Kent took 1-27, Arminder Birt 2-40 and Charles Harrison 1-15.
There were two excellent run outs as Drayton picked up 19 points.
