Words: Simon Travers
As the new season starts to bed in, momentum is building in all areas of the club. Leading up to the weekend, the colts section recorded an impressive clean sweep of wins across the age groups. Could the senior teams continue this good run of form?
Study recent head to heads between the Ones and Bradninch 1XI and you might have been expecting the Ones to constrain the East Devon side to a reachable target before having to strain every sinew to get over the line. Three of the last four matches between the team have followed that pattern, with wins for the Firsts by 1, 2 and 3 wickets. This weekend’s game continued this pattern as the Ones recorded their debut win of the season by 3 wickets with a last over finish.
Bradninch are a dangerous batting side looking to attack the new ball but, for the second week running, Adam Goodliffe claimed early wickets. At 79/2 after 15 overs, Bradninch would have hoped to kick on past 200, but the Cornwood bowlers took control. Crashing through the Bradninch tail, the Firsts bowled the home team out for 184 with over 8 overs still available. Elliot Staddon lead the attack with 3-36, with two wickets a piece for Adam Goodliffe, Harry Woolway and Jay Bista.
With Jay Bista caught for 5 off of Aryan Raigangar in the fourth over, the batting unit employed a cautious approach. Max Finzel and Aaron Richards both made handy 20s in a partnership of 45 that took the Ones to 50/2 in 18.3 overs. Ryan Rickard glued the innings together on the way to a Man of the Match performance 46. A fourth wicket partnership with Eliot Staddon of 52 positioned the Ones for the win, needing 52 from the last 10 overs. Wickets fell but there was enough in the tank and George Thompson and Adam Goodliffe knocked off the last runs with 4 balls to spare. A 19 point win and the Ones are up and running.
On Sunday, the Women’s Ones hosted Plymouth and Bovey Tracey in the last week of the Super 8s needing at least one win to top their group. Game 1 against Plymouth went awry, with the visitors scoring maximum points on the way to a 66 run victory. Captain Hannah Bagshaw-Bale took 3-20 as Plymouth scored 104/6 from their 16 overs but the batting collapsed to 38. If Plymouth could have done the same to Bovey Tracey in game 2, they would have put pressure on Cornwood for the last game, but Bovey Tracey did Cornwood a favour. That meant any win was enough in the final game of the day, and the Women’s Firsts duly delivered. Sarah Puleston hit an unbeaten 33 and Joanne Ricks took 2-24 on the way to a 16 run win against Bovey. Congratulations to the Women’s Ones as they make it through to finals day.
The Threes continued their good start to the season with a nip/tuck win at Delamore Park against a visiting Teignmouth and Shaldon 2XI. The visitors elected to bat but found it tough. Bradley Nicholls, Duncan Cumberland and captain Josh Wood were stingy, each going for less than 3 an over, before Joe Davies’ leg spin claimed 3 wickets for the second week running. A target of 160/9 was set, but it looked distant on the horizon when the Threes were 4/3 after 2.2 overs and 39/5 ten overs later. But it only takes a partnership, and the Threes built a couple of them. Jack Le Marichal (47) put on 47 with Nathan Parsons and another 69 with Bradley Nicholls (39*) to put the Threes 6 away from their target. They made it home with 2 wickets to spare to go clear second in F Division West.
The Twos were improved hosting a Plymstock 1XI team that most would name as favourites to win promotion to B Division. If the match had been a boxing match, it would have been a clear points victory to the visitors. Plymstock landed hard punches on the Twos, but never knocked them out of the contest. Put into bat, Cornwood were wobbling at 35-3 at the first drinks break but they countered well. Sam Griffiths, promoted to 4 in the order, top scored with a fluent, sensible innings that fell 5 runs short of his first senior team 50. Ewan Grewal and Luke Richardson provided chipped in 20s and Mike Hodge got a loud cheer as he cleared the pavilion with a 6 on his Twos debut. 192 was a respectable target for Plymstock to chase, but Cornwood found it hard to contain Alexandros Karvelas. Having already taken 3 wickets, he thumped 51 from 39 balls to remove any pressure from the visitor’s chase. However, the Twos stuck at it and were only ever a few breaks away from an upset. The South End Steamroller, Lee Baker, made a welcome return to the team with figures of 3-20. Plymstock reached the target with 5 wickets spare. The Twos are propping the league up at present, but on the evidence of this performance, that won’t remain the case for long.
The Fours thought their luck was in visiting Whitchurch as the hosts only had 8 players in the field at the start of the match. However, the missing parties emerged within five overs, and bowled the Fours out for 130 in 34 overs. Marc Whaley top scored on 43 with Phil McKenzie-Smith taking 5-14 for the hosts. Opening bowlers Anthony Goodwin and Marc Whaley both put pressure on by going at 2 an over, but the wickets didn’t tumble and Whitchurch claimed a 7 wicket victory.
Next weekend, the Ones host a Sidmouth team who lost a nail-biter against North Devon this weekend. The Twos visit Yelverton, the Threes have an early top of the table clash against Bovey Tracey, and the Fours are off to Hatherleigh. Sunday brings bonus T20 action too.
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