LULLINGTON Park ended their reign as Derbyshire Premier League champions with two more disappointing defeats to finish in ninth place.
They did, however, play with some pride and went some way to making up for the dire display at Quarndon the previous week.
At Ticknall on Saturday, the bowlers restricted the powerful home batting line-up to 196 from their 50 overs.
Graham Dent struck early, bowling skipper Luke Harvey for five, but Derbyshire’s Paul Borrington added 85 with Zain Abbas before hitting a waist high full toss from Matt Sanderson to Wayne Harris at cover point when he had made 47.
Park’s spinners then took over, with Paul Dawson having Sam Jubber stumped by Richard Green for 21 and bowling Abbas for 64.
Sanderson grabbed the last two wickets to fall, having Shahid Khan stumped for 12 and Ryan Cowley brilliantly caught by James Doherty diving forward at long on for 16.
Despite Park’s fragile batting, a score of under 200 should have been possible.
An opening partnership ended on 42 when Harvey brought himself on for the 11th over of the innings and had Doherty adjudged lbw sweeping for 15.
Wickets fell steadily with only opener Andrew Goodwin (29) and Harris with a Premier League best of 34 offering much resistance.
Abbas added three wickets to his half century to gain the man-of-the-match award.
On Sunday, Sandiacre chose to bat on winning the toss, needing a win to have any chance of overtaking Ockbrook for the title.
Dent reduced them to 15-2, having James Chapman leg before for five and bowling Derbyshire’s Chesney Hughes for a duck.
Ex-skipper John Trueman and overseas star Naveed Qureshi carefully set about repairing the damage, adding 79 quite slowly in the face of good bowling from Dent and George Chapman, whose left arm spinners brought five successive maidens at one point.
Alan Gough had Trueman caught and bowled for 46, bowled Rob Atwood for one and then caught and bowled David Jordison for nought.
This left Sandiacre on 116-6 with only 11 overs remaining.
However, John Jordison, with 61 not out in 47 balls, and former Dunstall batsman Matt Gouldstone, with 38 not out in 29 balls, re-established control for Sandiacre as Jonny Shales’ gamble in using part time off-spinner Sam Eaton at the death rebounded to the tune of 36 from three overs.
A total of 212 looked a challenging score on a pitch on which it seemed easier to bowl than bat.
Goodwin and Doherty set out to prove otherwise, adding 66 in 12 overs from Ryan McFadyean and Dan Wheeldon.
It was that man John Jordison who turned the tide with assistance from umpire Bob Sandham as he took four wickets for four runs as Park went from 66-0 to 73-5.
Goodwin, Shales and Green were all given out leg before and Eaton was caught and bowled when Jordison dived full length forward to snap up a catch inches from the ground.
Hughes bowled Doherty for 34 and Sandiacre were celebrating.
But they had reckoned without Gough and Dawson, who added a marvellous 80 for the sixth wicket to have the large contingent of Sandiacre fans biting their nails.
Dawson had made 32 when he nicked the returning Jordison to slip.
Chapman then entered the attack and had namesake George as the fourth lbw victim of the innings.
Dent defended doggedly to support the aggressive Gough, who had made 66 with 10 fours and two sixes, when he flashed at South African McFadyean and was caught by keeper Curtly Read.
When Dent became Jordison’s sixth victim for a career best 14, the innings subsided and Sandiacre had survived a fright to win 27 points.
It was not enough, however, as Ockbrook & Borrowash’s victory at Chesterfield ensured they regained the title.
