05/08/06
Cornwood III 293 for 9 Dartington and Totnes III 193 all out
Cornwood (20 points) beat D&T (8 points) by 100 runs
With a surfeit of players unavailable, 10 year old Jonathan Colegate, the youngest of the local cricketing dynasty, became the sixth member of his family to turn out for the Club. Jonathan had no intention of merely making up the numbers and in a fine spell of bowling took the wickets of three of Cornwood’s main batsmen in successive overs. He finished as D&T’s top bowler with 3 for 18 and was applauded off the pitch by his team mates. Not content with resting on his laurels he also scored 6 not out batting at number eleven under considerable pressure.
On a steaming afternoon Cornwood elected to bat on a good wicket against a D & T side with only three regular bowlers. Ed Palmer and Mick Rusling opened the bowling and although Rusling soon bowled Deal for 14, Cornwood had scored a further hundred runs before D&T’s next success. Teenager White quickly demonstrated his aggressive intent, coupled with good foot movement and timing. Opener Rickard, dropped early on, acted as a foil at one end whilst D&T’s bowlers struggled to contain White who was unafraid to hit the ball in the air despite being dropped twice.
Myles Sydenham(1 for 24) brought himself on to bowl and caused problems with his variation soon having Rickard(18) caught behind by Mike Fisher, who teased his skipper by juggling the ball.
White and Goodlife accumulated runs rapidly as Sydenham used 7 bowlers in an attempt to prise White out. The introduction of Jonathan Colegate finally did the trick. White cracked Colegate’s first ball to the boundary to complete a superb hundred with six 6s and nine 4s. Attempting another big hit he succeeded only in hitting the ball an enormous distance in the air. A relieved Sydenham made no mistake taking an excellent catch at mid wicket. In his next over Colegate ended Goodlife’s good life at the crease, trapping him lbw for 39. His third scalp came when he bowed Simpson.
Palmer and Rusling came back for second spells and Palmer took a deserved wicket when he had Follett caught by Rusling at point. When new batsman,Tall, blasted a ball from Rusling straight down the wicket all eyes were looking to the boundary. However, Rusling leapt to take a one handed catch off his own bowling, to the amazement of his colleagues- and perhaps himself. Angus Wilson had bowled well with little luck but picked up some reward for his endeavours when Rusling took another one handed catch to dismiss Staddon for 16. Burnside (33) and Smith 19 not out spoiled things for D&T with a ninth wicket stand of 54 before Liam Bligh, bowling with increasing confidence, had Burnside well caught by the Palmer on the mid wicket boundary in the final over.
With a largely inexperienced side scoring 294 runs to win was always going to be a tall order. A more realistic target was 195 with wickets intact needed for a ‘losing draw’.
D&T got off to a tremendous start when Quentin Thwaites and Fisher put on 88 for the first wicket. Thwaites played his customary anchor role whilst Fisher went after the bowling. Fisher had kept wicket for 46 gruelling overs and this finally got to him when, utterly exhausted, he was stumped for an excellent 60 which contained nine fours. Pip Topham joined Thwaites and the pair brought up the hundred before Thwaites succumbed, being bowled by Cornwood’s canny skipper Bryan Gould for a good 30 in the 27th over. Gould’s introduction into the attack proved to be a turning point. Taking full advantage of the sloping wicket Gould (5 for 30) dismissed Darren Colegate and then ripped through D&T’s inexperienced middle order. Young debutant Luke Chase, was caught off Smith as D&T’s batting collapsed.
Topham, D&T’s most prolific run scorer this season, continued to go after the bowling with another confident display. When he went for 44 D&T still needed 30 more runs to claim points for a draw with only 2 wickets remaining. Rusling joined Sydenham and soon found the bowling to his taste. Sydenham (4) was caught off Smith (2 for 45), attempting to farm the bowling, with D&T still needing fifteen runs.
Last man Jonathan Colegate joined Rusling and proved unflappable playing out an over which included a neat leg glance for four. On the final ball of the innings, Rusling, on 15, went for a big hit only to be stumped, leaving D&T tantalisingly close to their target.