Jolly's Cornwall Cricket League Four (East)
St Newlyn East v Tideford
On a day when some clubs were suffering from players having different priorities (congratulations Steve and Alison and Cornwall!) both teams were missing a number of first team players.
The weather conditions on arrival were bright and dry with a very fresh breeze coming off the sea. The wicket was as good as I have seen anywhere for quite some time and the outfield looked in excellent condition. St Newlyn should be proud of producing such a fine platform for the game of cricket to be played on.
Anton Luiten as stand-in captain for Tideford won the toss and decided to bat first. With Will Geach's regular partner missing, Jeff Griffin was given an opportunity to face more overs than had been the case so far this year. Initially Griffin was just a spectator as Geach launched into a sensational blitz on the unsuspecting bowlers. It lasted less than 10 overs, but in that time he had already scored 51 from 35 balls, blasting 10 4's in an opening partnership of 69.
Gerry Snowdon joined Griffin and maintained the impetus that Geach had provided. Of the St Newlyn bowlers R Scaife used all his experience and guile to restrict every batsman. Scaife was used throughout the first 31 overs and finished with 1 for 65 out of a total of 181. Griffin had long since decided to play the anchor role and began building another partnership with last week's centurion Mark Lindfield. Lindfield hit a quick fire 43 in a 4th wicket partnership of 85.
Mark Lister used six balls to get his eye in and launched his next ball over the long on boundary only for it to be sensationally snatched one handed just inside the rope. Not knowing how close he was to his first century for Tideford Griffin faced the final over and would like to thank M Thrussel for dropping the first one short and the second a full toss. With 2 successive 4's he reached the landmark without having to run.
St Newlyn's batsmen did themselves credit by not capitulating in the face of such a big target and sensibly played for as many batting bonus points. Even without their two main strike bowlers the line up included the under used Geach, the promising Sandie Bradbeer and his younger brother David. David has been causing shock waves in Division 6 for Tideford 2nd with his leg breaks and well deserved his 4 wickets on his first team debut.
B Punter for St Newlyn did well to make the most of any loose deliveries scoring 38 which included eight fours. Two very sharp stumpings were taken by the improving Lister. Tideford finally ran out winners by 144 runs in the fading light with the temperature falling all the time.
Scores - Tideford 281-5 (W Geach 51, J Griffin 108, G Snowdon 24, A Luiten 12, M Lindfield 43, M Peachey 13 n.o., J Hawken 2-90, M Thrussek 2-37, R Scaife 1-65). St Newlyn East 137 (B Punter 38, R Hounsome 14, M Hocking 14, J Wills 14, N Wright 14, R Scaife 14 n.o., D Bradbeer 4-38, W Geach 3-10, M Peachey 2-23).
Tideford (20) bt St Newlyn East (5) by 144 runs.