Cricket- County Division Three

St Minver v Menheniot

Menheniot made the trip to league leaders St Minver on Sunday and the home side, having won the toss on the best looking wicket seen by the visitors all season, elected to bat. Initially, it seemed a good toss to lose as Ed Gard made full use of the new ball to send Robbie Hawken back to the pavilion for a duck, having clean-bowled him with an absolute snorter.

Nigel Kent and Chris Daley soon followed as Gard revelled on the hard wicket, which meant that after just six overs St Minver were in some trouble at 24-3. Ray Butler was the next to go for a dogged 24 when he was caught off Ian Goldsmith and from this point onwards the home side staged a steady recovery. Bennetts scored a brisk 26, but it was Sean Hawken and David Brown who both batted very sensibly to eventually take the score to 183 at the end of their 48 overs. Gard once again provided the cutting edge with 4-57 from 15 overs. Hugh Rodgers returned the excellent figures of 5-41 also from 15 overs and can count himself a little unlucky in not taking more.

Although St Minver did well in the end to reach the score that they did, Menheniot had every confidence given the conditions and their strong batting line-up in reaching their target. Oh dear, how fickle this game can be! Phil Adsett can testify to the above, as having scored 105 not out the day before, he became the first victim when he was caught at first slip from the fourth ball of the innings. Keith Willcocks made a well crafted 35 before being well-caught on the boundary trying to hook Robbie Hawkin and from this point onwards the wheels rapidly came off as Menheniot's batsmen came and went in an abject display of batting that seems to blight them all too often. Nobody was blameless as the visitors handed their hosts the match on a plate and were finally bowled out for a miserable 90 runs on a wicket that they should not have been worried about chasing, 250 on, if required.

Good luck to st Minver as they continue to chase the promotion that they are so keen to achieve. As for Menheniot, the Jekyl and Hyde nature of their performances continue, mid-table is all they can hope for.

Scorecard

St Minver

R Hawken b Gard 0

N Kent c K Goldsmith b Gard 3

R Butler c S Taylor b I Goldsmith 24

C Daley b Gard 0

S Bennetts c Rigler b Rodgers 26

S Hawken c S Taylor b Rodgers 45

D Brown b Rodgers 41

M Daley b Gard 1

S Patterson st A Taylor b Rodgers 9

D Haynes st A Taylor b Taylor 4

C Old not out 1

Extras 31

Ttl - 183

Bowling - E Gard 15-3-57-4; S Taylor 9-0-50-0; I Goldsmith 9-3-25-1; H Rodgers 15-4-41-5.

Menheniot

K Willcocks c Daley b R Hawkin 35

P Adsett c R hawken b Old 0

J Carpenter c Bennetts b Old 1

H Rodgers c R Hawken b Old 0

I Goldsmith b S Hawken 13

E Gard c Butler b R Hawken 14

M Rigler c Brown b S Hawken 12

J Massey c Kent b S Hawken 1

S Taylor b R Hawken 5

A Taylor c & b R Hawken 0

Extras 10

Ttl - 90

Bowling - C Old 7-2-30-3; D Brown 19-4-14-0; R Hawken 12-5-15-4; S Hawken 10-2-22-3.

St Minver (19 pts) beat Menheniot (seven) by 93 runs.