Cricket- County Division Three (East)

Menheniot v Bude

Another hot day greeted the two sides at the village ground on Saturday and upon winning the toss, Bude captain Barry Sumption took the surprising step of asking Menheniot to bat first on a wicket that he obviously thought would offer early assistance to his bowlers.

After 20 overs when Phil Adsett and Alex Tunnadine had put on 81 runs without any trouble at all, and he must have been having second thoughts. Adsett was the first to go for an almost effortless 50 when he was adjudged lbw to Tony Scown, a decision which left him ruing his bad luck for the second week running when he had been looking well-set. This allowed Simon Hunt in to join Tunnadine and these two continued to make hay to put on 95 for the second wicket before Tunnadine ran himself out after making 72.

This was Tunnadine's first 50 at this level and the manner in which it was achieved suggests that it certainly will not be his last. Hunt was the next to go for another smooth innings, this time off 69. This all meant that after 42 overs, Menheniot had totalled 227-3 with the first three batsmen all scoring 50s. The last six overs yielded six wickets to Bude as Menheniot pushed the final total to 271-9 after 48 overs with the later batsmen coming and going in an effort to reach as high a total as possible. For Bude, Scown and Wint both stuck to their tasks well to take four wickets each.

This was a formidable total, but Sumption and John Mill, opening for the visitors, seemed to fancy their chances as they came out in positive fashion to score at a good rate for the first 10 overs. Ed Gard once again opened the bowling for Menheniot, with purpose causing the batsmen to play a number of streaky shots but it was the introduction of Stuart Taylor to replace the miserly but injured Ian Goldsmith who got the breakthrough.

However, two of Taylor's three wickets were more to do with two super catches by Jeremy Randle at point than devastating deliveries. The first one to dismiss a disbelieving Sumption for 25 was held one-handed above his head from a bullet square cut and the second to get rid of Derose was taken as inch off the ground when it had four runs written all over it.

This seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Bude line-up and with Gard finally getting his just reward with three wickets of his own and Hunt and Adsett completed a good day for both of them with two wickets each. Bude were finally dismissed in 36 overs for 132.

This was a very comfortable victory for Menheniot as they consolidated in mid-table. However, if Bude had batted first on what turned out to be reasonable surface, perhaps it may not have been quite so straight-forward.

Scorecard

Menheniot

P Adsett lbw b Scown 50

A Tunnadine run out 72

S Hunt b Wint 69

P Castell b Wint 15

I Goldsmith lbw b Scown 11

E Gard c Taylor b Wint 15

S Taylor c Scown 0

Je Randle c Gardner b Wint 2

J Massey c Taylor b Scown 1

M Rigler not out 10

A Taylor not out 7

Extras 20

Ttl - 271-9

Bowling - T Scown 15-2-57-4; G Wint 10-1-59-4; D Wood 16-2-93-0; B Sumption 7-0-48-0.

Bude

B Sumption c Je Randle b S Taylor 25

J Mill c Castell b Gard 12

J Gardner lbw b S Taylor 0

A Derosa c Je Randle b S Taylor 21

G George b Gard 0

G Wint c Hunt b Gard 4

M Taylor c Goldsmith b Hunt 13

A Hockin c Je Randle b Hunt 16

G Williams lbw b Adsett 15

T Scown b Adsett 3

D Wood not out 6

Extras 15

Ttl - 132

Bowling - E Gard 12-2-45-3; I Goldsmith 5-2-4-0; S Taylor 6-0-39-3; P Adsett 7-2-18-2; S Hunt 6-1-18-2.

Menheniot (20 pts) beat Bude (seven) by 139 runs.