Spiers spins Kibworth to terrific cup double
Russell Spiers proved the star turn as Kibworth completed a notable cup double.
The 50-year-old left-arm spinner bowled Nil Patel to clinch as 50-run victory over Loughborough Town in the County Cup final at Grace Road.
That was seven days after Spiers hit the winning runs as Kibworth defeated Market Harborough in the Everards Challenge Cup final.
This was Spiers' 10th County Cup final, 31 years after his first appearance when he helped Leicester Nomads to victory over Leicester Ivanhoe.
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Spiers' bowling figures of 5.3-4-2-3 typified an impressively disciplined performance by Kibworth.
Put in on a green-looking wicket, they appeared in trouble at 48-4 in the 17th over of their 40 overs. But the lower-order batsmen dug in with Josh Peel (28) and Dan Broughton (23) leading the way.
Spiers, winner of the man-of-the-match award, contributed 11 before Kibworth were all out for 164, having battled through their full allocation of overs. Ollie Freckingham, bowling with plenty of fire, took 3-27 and produced a beauty to send Ram Ghuman's off-stump flying.
Loughborough looked in charge when they reached 55-1 in the 15th over.
But Charles Page-Morris dismissed Shyam Patel, Tom Wells and Dips Patel in two overs.
When Sunny Patel was caught low down at slip by captain Matt Craven off Darren Shaw, Loughborough slipped to 88-5.
The run-rate required increased and Spiers bowled Zee Salvi and Freckingham in the same over.
A direct hit by Peel ran out Kyle Saddington before Spiers wrapped up the win.
Kibworth have had a lean Everards Senior League campaign by their standards with only two victories.
But Craven said: "It's been an unbelievable end to the season. If we had been offered a place in two cup finals halfway through, we would have been more than happy and we would have been delighted to win just one of them."
He added: "We were underdogs in both finals. At Harborough, it was a close game and here, even at 48-4, we thought, if we could get to 160, we were in with a chance.
"We said, if we could bowl tightly and take wickets with the new ball, it was a final and the pressure could build."
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