Cricket- County Division Six East

St. Neot v Tideford II

On a weekend of local(ish) derbies St. Neot entertained a Tideford side of experienced heads and youthful exuberance. On winning the toss the Tideford skipper elected to field.

A new opening partnership of the Kent brothers went out to the middle and soon found they had been put in on a placid wicket that gave encouragement to the batsmen. AK set off like a rocket taking 14 off the first over, while GK at the other end started playing for his average.

It took a couple overs for the bowling of Luff and Ellacott to find their line and length but once they did the run rate slowed but the board was always ticking over. With bowlers finding life hard the change attack to Shaw and Holland had little effect as AK seemed to coast passed his 50 in 58 balls.

Then just after they had set a new record-opening stand for St. Neot of 96, GK was bowled and was out for the first time since June 19. Next in was Clapham who soon settled into his elegant style and played the perfect back up to AK until the latter entered the nervous nineties and played one shot too many and top edged a catch.

With the score at 124 for 2, Pearce joined Clapham and these two increased the run rate with Pearce finding the track to his liking. Once Clapham had gone Smurf opened up and sent the ball to all parts of the ground until the adrenaline got to him and he was bowled for 49 off 47 balls. With the score at 207 for 4 it was left to Tamblyn, playing for his first not out in years, with brief help from Searle to see the innings home to 211 for 5.

Tideford began the chase with out much luck as Luff played on and Roberts was bowled by Bunt before Holland was run out to leave Tideford on 18 for 3 off 9 overs. Ellacott was next to go and at 26 for 4 the innings was looking a little precarious. Trondley and Shaw started a fight back as they came to terms with the pace of Bunt and O'Brien. With the St. Neot skipper AK sensing things going stale he made sweeping changes, going from pace to spin by bringing on Watts and Searle.

Watts soon made the breakthrough as he bowled Trondley with the score at 56. Rowe then replaced Searle and took 2 wickets in his first over. Watts followed this with two in two balls before blatantly avoiding the hat-trick ball and Tideford were 68 for 9. Watts finished things in his next over as Tideford went from 68 for 5 to 68 all out. A note of mention must go to the young Tideford players, some playing their first league game, as they never let their heads drop and gave it their all throughout.

Scores - St Neot 211 - 5 (A Kent 93, M Pearce 49, C Clapham 24, G Kent 18, A Tamblyn 10 n.o., D Holland 3-60); Tideford 68 (I Trondley 18, D Shaw 12, D Holland 11; D Watts 4-15, S Rowe 2-3, M Bunt 2-15).

St Neot (20) bt Tideford (3) by 143 runs.