A beautiful sunny evening ushered in the opening round of fixtures of the 2008 Longstone League campaign.

Grindleford travelled to Elton for a game which pitched together two young sides eager to get off to a winning start in the 15 eight ball over format.

But a heavily grassed outfield suggested a low scoring game in prospect.

The visitors batted first, but it was Elton skipper Paul Carson who sprung the first surprise of the evening, opening up with the left arm wizardry of James Marsden from the scorebox end. It proved to be a masterstroke.

Marsden found an excellent line, kept the batsmen quiet and took two important wickets in his four over ration.

Jonathan Heath, introduced later from the same end, also bagged a couple of wickets as Grindleford struggled to 72-5 in their 15 overs.

With fours hard to come by on the slow outfield, the wise old heads at the boundary edge quickly identified that the Grindleford total was a better effort than the bare figures might suggest, but one which ought to be comfortably within the grasp of the home batting line up.

The Elton opening pair of Craig Elliott and Jack Stone paced their response sensibly and were more than halfway towards their target before Elliott was dismissed for 21 in the most unfortunate of circumstances – Stone's firm drive being deflected onto the stumps at the non-strikers end by the bowler. Elliott was some way out of his ground and had to go.

Enter Robert Lightfoot, of whom much is expected this season. He survived a confident shout for a catch at the wicket before unleashing a few characteristically powerful shots to clock up 19 not out and bring the target quickly into view.

Stone continued to bat responsibly, finishing unbeaten on 22 as Elton cruised home with wickets and overs to spare.

l DOUG Howie was in the runs last week as well (see YDCL report left), hitting 61 of Calver’s 107-2 in the first of this season’s 15-overs-a-side Wednesday night Longstone League fixtures against Ashford. However, Ashford, with the aid of Alex Finney’s 33, reached 112 with six wickets intact.

Richard Percival’s 62 not out was the backbone of Hathersage’s 123-2.

Eugene Henderson then took 4-6 as Great Longstone were halted on 62-7.

Fixtures for May 21 (6.30pm).

Hathersage v Ashford, Calver v Grindleford, Elton v Great Longstone.