Must Try Harder!

Despite an unpromising weather forecast there was little overnight rain and two teams duly assembled on a warm but cloudy day.  Gunnislake were hosts to Holsworthy, and with a weakened team it would need some luck to make a good match of it against the league leaders.

The omens were not good, as Gunnislake lost the toss, and nothing improved from there.  Was there an important football match or something on?  Gunnislake did not seem to want to hang around, and a succession of wickets tumbled to the accurate and sometimes hostile pace of a quartet of Holsworthy bowlers.  The experienced John Snell and Dave Snowden pinned Gunnislake down, then handed the baton to younsgters Rowan Tidball and William Priest.  Only skipper Kevin Beare offered any real resistance as Gunnislake were skittled out for 55 in only 27 overs.  Tidball and Priest helped themselves to seven wickets in the process, with four falling to Priest for a meagre 3 runs.  Dave Warner was left stranded on an unbeaten nought, but was perhaps relieved not to have had to face a single ball.

Miracles do sometimes happen, but not today at Gunnislake.  After a quick tea and drink the one sided show continued.  A sweepstake for how long it would take Holsworthy to score the runs was pretty accurate: 10 overs.  There was tiny hiccup as Mills was caught at mid-on, but after that Dan Furse and Matt Marks saw Holsworthy home with no further alarms.

What more can I say?  It was a drubbing.  Holsworthy are an excellent side and arguably too good for Division 6, but this was a rather tame and timid response from Gunnislake.  If this was a school report it might conclude “must try harder”!

Gunnislake 55 (K Beare 19; W Priest 4-3, R Tidball 3-13, J Snell 2-21).  Holsworthy II 57 -1 (M Marks 34no, D Furse 23 no).  Holsworthy II (20 points) beat Gunnislake (I point) by nine wickets.

Scorecard