Lutterworth kicked off their season in style with a convincing 7 wicket victory against the 2009 National Champions Kibworth in their opening Premier League fixture on Saturday.

The young Lutterworth side skippered by Karl Smith sprang into life after winning the toss and electing to bowl first on a good Kibworth pitch. Warren Evans started the new season in spectacular fashion taking a great caught and bowled chance with his very first ball. The following over bowled by Jarrad Pickering gave no rest bite for the Kibworth batsmen, his first ball was chopped onto the stumps by the batsmen and the next ball also proved too good for danger man Amir Mahmood who was gobbled up at first slip by Craig Wilson. What a start to the new season, after two over's Kibworth were 1 for 3.

Kibworth Captain Andy Smith (34) and Tim Mason (50) steadied the innings for Kibworth but Lutterworth still looked dangerous with some quality bowling from Wilson (14-0-63-3) and Evans (11-1-40-1). Wilson then prised out the dogged Smith which brought Renshaw (83) to the crease. Some wayward bowling and lusty blows saw Kibworth rebuild their innings but they were finally bowled out in the 49 over for 254. This looked like a good score but not unachievable with a strong Lutterworth batting line up which included Leicestershire batsmen Jacques Du Toit.

Lutterworth openers Steven Masic and Oliver Pickering started the innings off for the visitors. Masic soon fell for the visitors in the third over, L.B.W. to Dhanjeet Guman. Lewis Hill strode to the wicket and looked confident from the off playing the ball with ease between fielders and picking up valuable ones and twos. Pickering looked rather suspect in the opening over's and was lucky when dropped by the keeper whilst in his thirties. The two batsmen started to dominate from this point as Pickering made the most of his life, smashing some sumptuous cuts and pulls to all parts of the ground. Pickering and Hill's scores were neck and neck but Pickering reached his fifty with a delightful late cut past first slip. Hill's fifty soon followed with a trademark off drive through the covers.

Kibworth continued to rotate their bowlers but none could tie down the belligerent Pickering who seemed to accelerate after his fifty. His hundred was brought up by some huge hits off the leg spin of Cobb and at this stage the two batsmen looked in total control. Unfortunately Pickering fell caught by Parkin a few over's later for 114 off 88 balls including 14 fours and 5 sixes. The partnership between the pair was 189. With Lutterworth at 192-3 the last thing that Kibworth wanted to see was Jacques Du Toit walking to the crease after his heroics in the League cup semi final last year (204 off 102 balls). He didn't disappoint either sweeping the spinners to the boundary on more than one occasion. Hill continued to work the ball around guiding his team to certain victory until he faltered with only three needed for 89, a great knock for such a young batsmen. The match was soon over when Du Toit (46) placed the ball for another four with 2 over's remaining. This was a superb start to the season and hopefully Lutterworth can continue their good form with their first home game this Saturday against Syston.