Match report by Ian Dawe (30th April).
The first league game of the new season for Gunnislake arrived on a very sunny day in east Cornwall. A lot of pre-match prep was done, and to the toss we came, which Kevin won and elected to bat first.
Opening the batting with Kevin was Dinesh and in just the second over Kev fell for 1, off the first ball of what ended up being a 17 ball over. Out strode Brian Martin and he and Dinesh settled the early innings wobbles adding 43 together before Dinesh left the arena with 14 in just the 5th over of the innings. Ross Potter on his league debut joined Brian in the middle and kept the run rate at over 10 with the 100 coming up in the 10th over. At drinks they had already moved the score along to 170-2, their partnership finally came to an end in the 24th over when Ross was bowled for 74 off just 50 deliveries, but not before they had added a whopping 144 together. Next in was Mark Everett and he and Brian added exactly 50 for the 4th wicket before Mark fell for a quickfire 21 and seeing us to 239-4. Owen Patton and Dean Organ scored 5 and 7 respectively when trying to push the score even higher and we were on 257-6 in the 36th over.
The last 3.5 overs saw Brian eventually get out for a brilliant 83, Ian Dawe 6, Sylvan 2 and Paul Lees a goldie. Meanwhile debutant Andrew Dickerson finished on 12 not out from 5 balls. The heady heights of 280 was achieved in the first game of the season and the best score for the club with the bat since September 2014.
After teas and with the temperature dropping Menheniot Looe started their efforts to get to 40 overs without losing all their wickets. Gunnislake opened the bowling with Ian and Paul and it was not long before Paul struck. In fact he struck twice with his very first two balls with able assists with catches from Dean and Mark. Alas the hat-trick was not to be but Menheniot Looe were 3 for 2 in the second over. The wizard struck again in his 3rd over as well making the score 13 for 3 and he would go on to finish with great bowling figures of 3 for 23 off 7 overs. Sylvan replaced Ian (6-2-6-0) and bowled extremely well and starting with a wicket maiden which meant the opposition found themselves 21 for 4 in their 12th over, needing a rather unlikely more than 9 an over for their remaining 28 overs.
Dean replaced Paul at the River End, and with Sylvan continued to make regular breakthroughs in Menheniot Looe defences. S ylvan finishing with figures of 10-2-29-2 and Dean with an excellent 10-2-23-3. With 8 overs to go they were on 95 for 8 and the game already well and truly done for them. Owen had an over and Mark bowled 4 overs and grabbed the final 2 wickets for just 11 runs as a spirited tail wag from Menheniot/Looe came to an end with almost 2 overs to spare, leaving them on 126 all out. A 154 victory was achieved by your valiant gladiators and 20 points to boot.
The game was played in great spirit from both teams and a special thank you to Sammie for scoring, on to next week when we are home again to Launceston and let’s see if we can make it two wins in two.
Gunnislake 280 all out (Martin 83, Potter 74, Everett 21; Conbeer 4-14, James 3-34) Menheniot Looe III 126 all out (Elliot 33, Jordan 28, Juckett 21 n.o.; Organ 3-23, Lees 3-27). Gunnislake (20 points) beat Menheniot Looe (8 points) by 154 runs.