A SECOND trip to Lord's will have to wait for Sandiacre Town after they were comfortably beaten by Kibworth in yesterday's Cockspur Cup semi-final.

The Leicestershire club, who have now reached a third Cockspur final themselves, are a formidable outfit and might not have needed the considerable advantage of winning the toss on a day that followed a night of heavy rain.

The wetness of the wicket at the start was enough to make any bowler's eyes light up and Kibworth duly applied a pressure that Sandiacre could never entirely conquer.

The home side's scorecard tells its own story, with three batsmen getting past 20, five others reaching double figures but none able to go on and put up the big score that might have pushed their side towards 200 and offered Kibworth a more daunting chase.

Captain John Trueman, one of three veterans of the 2003 Cockspur Cup-winning team in yesterday's Sandiacre line-up, might have been the man to do that – but he lifted opening bowler Aamir Mahmood down Sundeep Patel's throat at long on too early in the proceedings and it was hard going for his side from then on.

Akhil Patel looked as if he might get going as well, before flashing at veteran spinner Russell Spiers and being caught behind by Charlie Morgan.

Rob Attwood and Ollie Swann could not get after Spiers and fellow spinner Tim Mason, once of Essex and Leicestershire, and Ian Parkin's arrival at the crease, at number seven, came too late for the combative all-rounder to make much difference.

Spiers had bowled nine overs for 17 runs, with three maidens. At 46, he remains a canny competitor and was among the heroes when Kibworth beat Ockbrook & Borrowash to win this competition in 2004.

Perhaps significantly, six others of yesterday's Kibworth line-up played in the 2004 final, so stability in plainly one of their strong points.

With Sandiacre held to 168-9 and the wicket easing a little, Kibworth knew they could afford to be careful with the bat but openers Greg Smith and Sundeep Patel got them off to a comfortable start anyway.

Smith shares a name with Derbyshire's South African but may end up better known.

At 19, he has already played for England under-19s and made 35 on his first-class debut for Leicestershire against Bangladesh A last month.

Yesterday, his sound technique did not give John Jordison, Andy Marlow or James Chapman a sniff as the opening partnership moved steadily to 72.

And that was the point at which Sandiacre finally did get just the slightest of sniffs.

In successive overs, Parkin slipped one through to bowl Patel and Trueman, recognising that spin might just be the answer, had Smith sharply stumped by Danny Green.

If it was a marginal decision – and it looked one – all credit to the umpire for being brave enough to give it.

The openers had put Kibworth ahead of the clock, however, and Nick Ferraby, in at three, could afford to be careful, along with John Hanger, while Trueman got through a testing nine-over spell for only 19 runs.

The pair were parted by a brilliant stop and return to Jordison by Chris Seal at midwicket, Hanger being left stranded halfway down, but Kibworth captain Andrew Smith played quite beautifully to extinguish any Sandiacre hopes of a dramatic fightback.

Apart from executing a series of excellent cover drives, he lifted Parkin over midwicket for six and by the time Chapman had him leg before, only 10 were needed and Ferraby saw it through easily to finish on 44 not out.