The first return fixture of the season saw Gunnislake travelling to St Austell, who were rumoured to be fielding a weakened team. Sure enough, on arrival, there was old friend Saf Wallace, on loan to St Austell as he sought to beat last season’s effort of playing for eleven teams (including for Gunnislake on three occasions). The St Austell captain confirmed he had had to drag some old payers out of retirement, having only seven players available earlier in the week. Perhaps the team riding high in the league in second place were going to struggle?
The traditional losing of the toss followed (Sylvan advised to always call either heads or tails, Dean offered to do the toss next time as he always won nearest to the bull at darts?!). Gunnislake were inserted, the reasons for which gradually became apparent. St Austell openers Ryan Bate and Mark Bennetts had a brief look at the bowling – four runs from the first three overs. Having done that the batsmen decided they liked what they saw and started to assert their authority. A steady four an over flowed as Bate in particular looked a class act. But then Bate missed a full toss and was bowled by young Ben Alford in his first over. Enter Kevin Martin. Who, asked the Gunnislake coaching team, for he had not featured in their pre-match analysis? First game in three years muttered St Austell. Hmm. Four fours were followed by a six and St Austell had moved up a gear, with 121 on the board at the half-way mark. Kai Murray Dustan and Sylvan Pook valiantly tried to keep one end in check, while at the other end Gunnislake tried a series of two overs from a range of players. Martin’s fifty became Martin’s hundred, while his partner Bennetts was by now also well past his own 50. Martin gave a few chances, but Gunnislake were on the back foot and the run rate continued to rise. A score in excess of 300 seemed more and more likely, but in the final over Martin skewed to point, where Sylvan Pook took an excellent catch, to give Alford his second wicket and Gunnislake a first bowling point. Three off the final over restricted the St Austell score to a modest 299 for the loss of those two wickets Martin scoring 146 and Bennetts 93 not out.
Rather than go out all guns blazing Gunnislake opted for the sound base to the pyramid, opening with old hands Ian Mill and Barrie James. But the first “Brick in the Wall” came out in over 3, James bowled for 1. Adam Emmerson and Ian Mill painstakingly rebuilt the innings, and it was at times painstaking! At 20 overs the score had crept to 46, and St Austell were giving all of their occasional bowlers a turn. After the drinks break Emmerson tried to up the tempo but holed out. From there a succession of batsmen tried to burnish their credentials for winning the end of season trophy for the most ducks. JJ Brenton livened things up briefly with a breezy 16, but it was St Austell’s day. The innings closed meekly on 137 for 7, with Kevin Martin (him again!) claiming three cheap wickets and Mill on 35 not out.
And so Gunnislake slipped to another emphatic defeat. To be fair the bowling was much better than the scorebook suggests, with Kai Murray-Dustan again acquitting himself well. Unfortunately selection problems at St Austell were solved by a rather good batting line up. A poor Gunnislake batting display then failed to take advantage of what seemed to be a weak bowling attack. St Austell remain in the hunt for promotion while Gunnislake need to regroup!
St Austell (18 points) beat Gunnislake (4 points) by 162 runs.