A glorious summer’s day greeted the teams at Gunnislake. The Hawkmoor ground was at its finest, with the square looking its best for years. Meanwhile the River Tamar flowed past on its way to the English Channel, now believed to be host to escaped wild beavers. A halcyon iconic English scene provided the perfect setting for hosting the league leaders, Duloe.
Gunnislake won the toss and chose to bat. Duloe opened the bowling with father and son partnership Dick and William Turpin, while Adam Emmerson and Stephen Lees had the responsibility of building a foundation for Gunnislake. But calamity struck first ball, a gentle short loosener from Turpin senior, caused Emmerson’s eyes to light up and attempt to despatch the ball to the leg side boundary. Alas he missed, the ball clipped the top of middle stump and Gunnislake were 0 for 1. The two Turpins continued to bowl well, with nagging accuracy from Dick and some pace and swing from William. Runs were hard to come by, and the pressure continued to be applied when Mathew Julian and Sam Cripps took over from the Turpins. Wickets fell at regular intervals, with the run rate stuck at no more than three an over. But it was the introduction of slow bowling from Simon Massey and that saw a flurry of wickets, with Massey taking 4 for 17. Several Gunnislake batsmen made contributions, but none really got in. Indeed a final wicket partnership of 31, with a flurry of attacking shots and boundaries from Iain Barker and Lee Roberts, proved to be the highest of the innings. When Barker was out the Gunnislake innings had subsided to 133 all out.
Duloe’s reply was emphatic and relatively brief. Thomas Turpin was in particularly fine form, driving through the covers off the back foot and clipping to leg. Jake Baker supported well at the other end as Gunnislake rang the bowling changes to no avail. Duloe needed only 23 overs to reach the target, for the loss of one wicket. Indeed that one wicket was a doubtful LBW decision, but since it was given by the Duloe captain, only Thomas Turpin was complaining! He had, however, the compensation of recording an excellent 74. Duloe were helped by a succession of dropped catches, none easy, but the final one was off the last ball of the match. A firm drive to mid-off slipped through the fielder’s fingers to deny Gunnislake a solitary bowling point and gift the winning runs to Duloe. Jake Baker finished just short of a half century on 46 not out.
And so Duloe bagged maximum points while Gunnislake had to settle for three. Early season league leaders Duloe, look favourites for promotion, while Gunnislake have a challenging time ahead.
Gunnislake 133 all out (D Thirupuvanarajah 21; S Massey 417, R Turpin 3-23). Duloe 134 for 1 (T Turpin 74, J Baker 46no). Duloe (20 points) beat Gunnislake (3 points) by 9 wickets.