Cricket- County Division Eight (East)
St Erme v Looe
Bearing in mind the previous encounter, last Sunday's fixture against St Erme looked very encouraging for Looe, with the odds looking to be stacked heavily in their favour.
Having established a 236 run victory over the bemused St Erme 11 only seven days previously, Looe travelled away, hoping to reinforce their confidence going into the latter half of the season. However, with St Erme knowing what to expect, Looe could not afford to go into this fixture taking anything for granted. Winning the toss, St Erme elected to open the batting, beginning their innings with the combination of Spear and Wiggan. Striking in the third over, the Looe bowling attack took the early initiative as a result of Alex Joyce's well-defined line and length. The wickets fell at a steady rate around the determined Wiggans, who was dismissed after 30 overs due to the emphatic pace of Martin MacMillan for a top-scoring 47. This saw the entrance of Chorley, who together with Matthewman frustrated the Looe field to put on 32 valuable runs to take the St Erme total past 100. The purveyor of line and length, Joyce, completed the afternoon with figures of 5-27.
Starting their own innings before tea, Looe made a safe enough start but Spear soon started to cause problems and the visitors found themselves collapsing at 56 for seven wickets. Those odds were rapidly changing. Enter Pat Newman who employed 'bravado tactics' to turn the game back in Looe's favour, scoring 35 indispensible runs. This however would not have been possible but for Dan Sharpe who, batting with composure stayed with Newman and shared a match-winning partnership of 39, scoring seven not out. Spear, who's efforts with the ball had so nearly brought success for St Erme returned match figures of 5-32.
Looe (16) bt St Erme (five) by three wkts.