EAST Cornwall produced a fine victory to stun Mid-Cornwall 20-16 at the Liskeard Sports Club on Friday, May 16.

First off for the home side was Darren ‘Donkey’ Hooper who lost to David Liddicoat, as did Ollie Rounsevell against Tristan Prigg.

It was left to Luke Penhaligon to get East Cornwall off the mark when he beat Jamie Green, and Marc Pacey followed his captain’s lead and took out Darren Griffiths for 2-2.

Steve Eastley and Brian ‘Reedy’ Reed went down to Glenn Shimmin and Brian Green, and despite Darrel Hidson beating Simon James, Mark Adams then saw off Gerry Markwell to clinch the first set.

Even though Mark Stevens took the last frame against Mark Berry, the visitors led 5-4 after the first of four nine-frame sets.

Set Two started with a bang for the visitors who rattled off five wins in a row with victories for Griffiths, Liddicoat, Prigg, Green and Berry.

Reed stopped the rot by beating Shimmon, but Green and James piled on the pressure taking out Hidson and Markwell.

And although Stevens wagged the tail for the East boys, it was too little too late to prevent the visitors securing the second set 7-2 and with it an overall lead of 12-6.

But from there the East Cornwall boys showed their battling qualities by taking 14 of the next 18 frames available to produce a remarkable comeback.

Hooper started it all off when he beat Green, only for Griffiths to make it 13-7.

The next two went to the hosts courtesy of wins for Penhaligon and Pacey over Liddicoat and Prigg, but back came the visitors with victories for Adams and Berry as they beat Eastley and Reed.

At 15-9, Mid Cornwall needed just four more for victory, but the hosts rallied to take the last three of third set courtesy of Hidson, Markwell and Stevens against Shimmin, Green and James, thus giving them them the set 6-3.

Although two sets to one down and 15-12 behind in frames, you could sense the home side were right in the contest, and so it proved as they flew out of the traps in the fourth.

An in-form Hooper got the better of Prigg before Rounsevell took down Green.

Penhaligan’s victory made it all square at 15-15 and although the home charge was briefly slowed when Liddicoat took out Pacey, East Cornwall then took the final five frames.

Keith Armitage was brought off the bench and made an immediate impact by seeing off James to start the second half of the set with a flourish.

With four games left the result could have gone one of three ways, yet, Reed proved too good for Adams, as did Hidson against Berry.

Markwell played some good stuff to take out Shimmin and the rally was completed by Stevens who saw off Green to cap a superb turnaround and with a 20-16 victory, a superb effort considering they were 15-9 down.

Credit to Mid-Cornwall, but in the end they were unable to stop East Cornwall’s momentum in the latter stages.

The victory was East Cornwall’s second from three games having previously won 24-12 at Launceston in their second outing since promotion.