Clive Rosevear Insurance 20/20 Hawkey Cup Group A Saltash v Callington SALTASH progressed to the county finals day at St Blazey on Sunday as group winners with a seven- wicket win over a strong Callington second team on Monday. The visitors included several players who have played in the senior division's cup competition, and were also given 10 extra runs as a side in a lower division. But they were still well beaten by a Saltash side who carried on their recent good league form. Callington made a dreadful start when Keith Olver top-edged the second ball of the game to Adam Stevenson at mid-on to give Chris Simpson the wicket. It was left to the experienced pair of Hatch and Hocking to take the attack to the Saltash bowling. Young quick bowler Mark Partington-Smith was not fazed as he bowled straight and got his reward when he dismissed both batsmen, thanks to outstanding catches from Nick Carpenter and Jonny Trembath. Saltash paceman Ian Smith found plenty of bounce to hurry the batsmen and took a fantastic one-handed return catch to dismiss Parker. The Saltash fans were soon on their feet again to applaud another superb catch when Stevenson held on in the deep running backwards to end Simon Beare's stay for 17. Ryder did manage to get the total up to something reasonable for the Callington bowlers to defend with some late hitting, including 23 off Simpson's final over, but 132 never really looked like enough against a Saltash side packed with powerful hitters. Skipper Ross Braund played a little cameo innings before making way for the hard-hitting duo of Carpenter and Simpson, who played well within themselves, preferring to pick up quick singles rather than their usual style of smashing it out of the ground. The occasional big hit still came along, but Simpson was surprisingly given out thigh before wicket, with the bruise to prove it, for 25, and when Carpenter was cleaned up by Beare for 35, Saltash still had some work to do. Mark Hutchings is in the form of his life and never looked in trouble in making an unbeaten 20, but the star of the show was 14-year- old Stevenson, who demonstrated incredible timing for one so young with the stroke of the day through the covers to get off the mark. He then hit experienced bowler Hunn out of the attack with two pull shots that rocketed to the boundary. With 14 still needed from the last two overs, Callington were still in with a shout, but they surprisingly opted for inexperienced left- armer Morris, despite opening bowler Parker still having an over up his sleeve. However, Parker's indiscipline in bowling three no balls and giving Saltash three free hits was no doubt the reason, and this proved costly as Stevenson smashed two further boundaries off the first three balls to end any hopes Callington had. With six runs taken from the last three balls, the match was won without having to face the last over from Callington's best bowler Ian Birch. It was a great team performance from Saltash, who took some outstanding catches which proved to be the difference as Callington were somewhat shambolic in the field, putting down at least six catches and conceding seven no balls, which ultimately cost them the match. Callington K Olver ct A Stevenson b Simpson 0 J Hatch ct Carpenter b P-Smith 20 A Hocking ct Trembath b P-Smith 18 S Beare ct A Stevenson b I Smith 17 N Parker ct & b I Smith 1 S Ryder b Braund 35 T Neville b I Smith 2 A Morris not out 6 I Hunn not out 5 Extras 16 TOTAL (for 7 wkts, 20 overs) 132 Total includes 10 runs extra for lower division side Bowling: C Simpson 5-1-36-1, M Partington-Smith 5 -0-28-2, R Braund 5-0-24-1, I Smith 5-0-25-3. Saltash N Carpenter b Beare 35 R Braund ct Hocking b Parker 11 C Simpson lbw b Beare 25 M Hutchings not out 20 A Stevenson not out 28 Extras 15 TOTAL (for 3 wkts) 135 Bowling: N Parker 4-0-24-1, S Beare 5-0-23-2, T Neville 3-0-23-0, I Hunn 1-0-17-0, A Morris 2-0 -19-0. Saltash won by seven wickets.