An unbeaten century from Sam Wood and an exceptionally tight spell from captain Paul Franks saw Nottinghamshire’s Academy seal an eight-wicket victory over Radcliffe.
After winning the toss and putting Radcliffe in to bat, the Academy kept things tight and the pressure told when the first wicket fell in the 12th over with just 18 runs on the board, Ross Carnelly caught by Sam Wood off Brett Hutton.
Paul Franks then took three wickets between the 15th and 21st overs, Rob Sutton and Josh Mierkalns both caught by keeper Tom Keast then Mark Noblet caught at third slip by Sam Wood, the score 36-4 and the three out batsmen only managing five runs between them.
At drinks the score was 48-4 but in the 27th over Jake Fish was caught by Keast off Franks with no addition to the total. Opener Ben Carr was joined by David Lucas and they shared a stand of 72 before Carr (41) was caught and bowled by Hutton in the 43rd over, the visitors 120-6.
Tom Crosse was next in, Lucas reaching his fifty in the 45th over and the pair saw out the remaining balls to post a final score of 165-6, Lucas unbeaten on 63, Crosse 21 not out and Franks taking 4-11 off 7 overs.
The Academy reply came from Joe New and Anuj Dal but New was caught at slip in the 3rd over with just a wide on the scoreboard.
Hassan Azad (6) was next in but he was trapped lbw by Tom Crosse for six in the 8th over. At 15-2 Dal was joined by Sam Wood and by drinks they had added 73 to the total, Wood 43* and Dal 32*, Notts 88-2 at the break.
From there it was the Sam Wood show. He reached his fifty in the 28th over and the hundred came up in the 29th. A boundary four brought up the 150 up in the 34th over and the next he hit consecutive sixes to reach his century. If that wasn’t enough he then hit the winning runs, finishing unbeaten on 108 and Anuj Dal 47 not out, sealing a win for the Academy by 8 wickets.