Cricket- County Division Three (East)

Gorran v Menheniot

On a glorious summers day, Menheniot made the trip to Gorran and upon winning the toss had no hesitation in battling on a hard, bouncy wicket.

Rob Hurrell and Rob Daniel opened the bowling for the home side with some typical tight, probing deliveries. Alex Tunnadine fell early to Daniel which brought John Carpenter to the wicket to join Phil Adsett and these two in scorching heat made steady if unspectacular progress to take the score onto 90 from 30 overs.

Although this was probably less than was required given the conditions, it once again should have set the platform for acceleration towards a total in excess of 200 by a reasonable margin.

It never happened. The next five overs saw the loss on four wickets for the addition of nine runs as Menheniot once again seemed to lose their way having done the hard work.

Carpenter was first to go, out to the occasional off-spin of Bawden for 23 and soon after Adsett departed for another well made 50 when he was a little unlucky to play-on to Shepard. Thereafter it was a bit of a procession as batsmen came and went for a variety of reasons, and it was thanks to some lusty blows from John Randle right at the end that Menheniot finally limped to 156 all out in the 48th over, a total which was at least 80 short of what was required on this wicket.

Credit Gorran however who bowled very well and fielded like demons but the end of the tea interval saw Menheniot take the field knowing that basically they could not win this match, rather Gorran had to lose it.

There was no sign of them doing that from the first 10 overs as Hurrell and Dave Behenna tore into the visiting opening attack with relish, easily scoring six an over to seemingly dispel any fears that they too would make a pigs ears of batting on this track.

However during this period Behenna was dismissed by an absolute 'Jaffa' from Stuart Taylor which he could only touch through to the wicketkeeper.

The introduction of John Randle made a difference as he used all his experience and skill to have the home batting suddenly looking as vulnerable as their counterparts. He dismissed Hurrell, Semple and the dangerous Bunney in a 10 over spell but it was not enough as Bawden and Scott steadied the ship to take Gorran home easy victors by five wickets in the 30th over.

There was just a chance that around the 15th over mark, Gorran might just have 'lost' this match. However, some sloppy work in the field probably put paid to any chance a weakened Menheniot side had of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

So in summary, it was well played Gorran. Menheniot for their part can only rue the fact that they did not post a more challenging total for their hosts to chase when given the opportunity. If they had, the result could well have been reversed.

Scorecard

Menheniot

P Adsett b Shepard 50

A Tunnadine b Daniel 4

J Carpenter c Noott b Bawden 23

S Taylor run out 1

M Rigler b Shepard 1

A Taylor b Hurrell 21

Je Randle run out 9

J Massey c Behennah b Daniel 2

Jo Randle c Bunney b Daniel 25

J Kelly b Hurrell 0

K Goldsmith not out 1

Extras 17

156

Bowling - R Hurrell 11-3-29-2, R Daniel 15-4-41-3, R Hasting 6-0-26-1, M Bawden 8-0-26-1, M Shepard 7-2-25-2.

Gorran

D Behenna c A Taylor b S Taylor 11

R Hurrell b Jo Randle 32

F Semple b Jo Randle 22

M Shepard c Kelly b Adsett 6

P Bunney b Jo Randle 11

M Bawden not out 43

A Noott not out 20

Extras 7

Ttl for 5 wkts 157

Bowling - S taylor 5-0-33-1, Je Randle 5-0-30-0, Jo Randle 10-2-31-3, P Adsett 8-0-47-1, K Goldsmith 1.2-0-14-0.

Gorran (20) bt Menheniot (5) by 5 wkts.