Nottinghamshire’s Academy ended the year with a battling draw in the fading light as they denied high-flying Cuckney a last round victory at Notts Sports Club.
The Academy won the toss and elected to bowl first, the visiting opening pair of Adam Burgess and Luke Thomas putting on 48 for the first wicket before Simon Webster had the latter caught behind for 26.
James Hawley joined Burgess and either side of a rain delay they added 31 before the former was Webster’s second victim, chipping a return catch to the bowler.
The Academy could sense an opening and Webster, Anuj Dal and Adam Tillcock combined to reduce the visitors to 118-6.
First Webster got his third wicket when Dal caught Nick Langford for nine before Dal turned bowled to dismiss Richard Bostock without scoring.
Tillcock (2-31) then got in on the act, having Wood caught and bowled for seven and Trent Lawford stumped for 38 either side of Dal dismissing Burgess for 37 and Ben Kitt bowling Joseph Hayes for two.
By that point third-place Cuckney had slipped to 193-8 giving the Academy hope of bowling them out for under 200 but visiting captain Will Butler had other ideas.
He blasted a 46-ball fifty to lift his side up to 235 when they were all out in the last over, Simon Webster finishing with figures of 3-68 from his 12 overs.
Tillcock and Tom Moores led the Academy reply and had edged towards a century opening stand before the latter was caught behind for 44, the Academy losing their first wicket on 93.
The 100 came up in the 25th over but two overs later Tillcock was LBW to James Hawley for 41 before Dal followed soon after LBW to Conor Tansley for three.
Hawley then added wickets two and three soon after, Connor Marshall LBW for 18 before Tom Keast was caught by Bostock off the bowler for 34.
Webster joined Liam Patterson-White in the middle but the latter was bowled with the last ball of the 42nd over for 11, the Academy struggling on 171-6.
The winning target still looked a long way off as Reicko Parker-Cole joined Webster especially after the former was caught behind off Wood for ten which was quickly followed by Paul Franks caught by Wood off Hawley.
The Academy were staring down the barrel of a loss in their last game when Ben Kitt was stumped for one, Hawley’s fifth wicket in figures of 5-87 in reducing the hosts to 214-9.
However, Simon Webster (37*) and Simon Walton (5*) saw out the remaining overs to finish on 225-9 and take ten points from the last game.
The Academy end the season in sixth place with eight wins and seven losses in a points tally of 264 as Kimberly win the Premier League title.
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