Cricket- County Division Three

Fowey v Menheniot

A Menheniot side containing a mixture of youth and those expecting a telegram from the Queen at any moment made their way to Fowey on Saturday and, upon winning the toss, Captain Phil Adsett asked the home side to bat on a wicket that had been freshened up by overnight rain.

Kirwan and Hamilton opened for Fowey and found the pace and movement of Ed Gard a handful to cope with and, after a number of close calls, Gard had Kirwan caught at the wicket for six with the score standing at 21. Gard went on to take three more wickets with another spell of fine aggressive fast bowling. It left Fowey at the half-way stage with a reasonable scoring rate of nearly four an over but with most of their top order back in the pavilion.

Gard now took a break along with Adsett who had been bowling economically from the other end which led to the introduction of two 15-year-olds in Stuart Taylor and Alex Tunnadine, who kept the pressure on but at times showed their inexperience in terms of consistency.

Taylor, however, had the dangerous Rob Bennetts caught behind by his father before he took a compulsory break after bowling six overs. This led to the introduction of another of the young brigade being introduced to the attack as Andrew 'Shane' Keeble, playing his first match at this level, came on to bowl his leg-spin. Keeble bowled superbly to take four wickets as the Fowey batsmen, obviously looking to increase the score-rate, never managed to come to terms with him. During this spell he had Hamilton well-caught by Stuart Taylor at point for a well-made 51, Fowey being dismissed for a disappointing total for them of 154 in 45 overs. For Menheniot, both Gard and Keeble finished with 4-27.

The Menheniot reply was pleasing for one reason above all else. It saw a young batsmen in the shape of Alex Tunnadine apply his undoubted ability to totally dominate proceedings and steer his side to what turned out to be a comfortable victory. Make no mistake, this Fowey side, who are fighting for points to maintain their division three status, quite rightly made it as difficult as possible for their visitors, but with good support from Peter Castell with a gritty 26 and Daniel Lee with a score of 14, Menheniot reached their target from 35 overs for the loss of five wickets. Tunnadine finished on 67 not out, with Wyatt being the pick of the Fowey bowlers in taking 3-36 off 16 overs.

When Phil Adsett took over as captain at the start of the season, he stated that his aim was to introduce the younger element to the first team as soon as he could. Performances like these from the youngsters, backed by the experience of some of the more regular players, can only be good news for the future and emphasises the logic behind this decision.

Scorecard

Fowey

D Kirwan c a Taylor b Gard 6

M Hamilton c S Taylor b Keeble 51

A Bennetts c A Taylor b Gard 1

T Whyatt c Adsett b Gard 16

M Bennetts b Gard 0

R Bennetts c A Taylor b S Taylor 18

M Roberts lbw b Adsett 6

J Snell c Rigler b Keeble 10

P Chapman c Tunnadine b Keeble 4

J Leach st Taylor b Keeble 3

C Taylor not out 10

Extras 29

Ttl - 154

Bowling - E Gard 12-2-27-4; P Adsett 14-2-42-1; A Tunnadine 6-0-21-0; S Taylor 6-1-28-1; A Keeble 7-1-27-4.

Menheniot

P Adsett b Whyatt 5

A Tunnadine not out 67

J Massey b Whyatt 3

P Castell b Whyatt 26

D Lee c A Bennetts b Snell 14

E Gard st Roberts b Leach 8

S Taylor not out 9

Extras 23

Ttl - 155-5

Bowling - T Whyatt 16-5-36-3; J leach 6.5-0-35-1; C Taylor 4-0-29-0; A Bennetts 7-0-33-0; J Snell 2-0-14-1.

Menheniot (20 pts) beat Fowey (five) by five wickets.