The 2025 Cornwall Cricket League season finally got underway on Saturday, in glorious sunshine and after a week of record temperatures. This was three weeks later than usual, as following two very wet springs the League restructured to form divisions of ten teams, with a later start to the season. Consequently, Gunnislake found themselves one of four teams promoted from Division 5 East to Division 5 East! One for future pub quizzes….
The team travelled west to play Grampound Road’s third eleven. With it being a bank holiday there seemed to be availability problems across the county and both teams fielded a loan player. Gunnislake won the toss and asked Grampound Road to bat. Grampound Road set off with intent, but a long hop in the third over saw Emery crash the ball to cover, where loan player Joshy Daniel held a good catch above his head. Gunnislake captain Dinesh Thirupuvanarajah, with pace and variety, and Lee Roberts, swinging the ball down the hill, reined things in as Grampound Road sought to regroup. Roberts was next on the scorecard, with two batsmen clean bowled attempting to hit the wrong ball. In between Dinesh took an acrobatic caught and bowled and Gunnislake were on top, Grampound struggling on 39 for 4.
Just before halfway James Boundy was introduced into the attack, with his naggingly accurate off-spin bowling. Tom Gurney was the only Grampound batsman to really work things out. He defended well when needed and attacked any bad balls. And there were a few of those, as Gunnislake rotated a series of occasional bowlers from the other end! While fours were being scored with abandon at one end Boundy chipped away at the other, using the full and straight ball to devastating effect. Two batsmen departed bowled and then James Pethick took a smart catch at gully off the bowling of Joshy Daniel, leaving Grampound Road in trouble at 87 for 7. The experienced Ian Osborne arrived to support Gurney and a brief recovery ensued. Osborne was bowled by Boundy for 19, but the prize came when Boundy trapped Gurney LBW. It was another full and straight ball, with Gurney falling three short of his half century. One over later the innings was over, with Grampound Road all out for 147. Boundy was the star bowler, taking 5 for 27 from 8.3 overs.
The Gunnislake reply started even swifter than Grampound Road, with 27 on the board after two overs. Sam Graber was in fine form, straight driving full balls but also punching short balls through the covers off his back foot. When Ian Osborne was brought on to bowl he brought a measure of control and chipped in with three wickets for a miserly eleven runs. But there was no stopping Graber, who along with a brisk 26 from Kevin Beare, saw Gunnislake home in the 27th over, for the loss of only three wickets. Graber finished on 64 not out in an innings of high quality.
And so a Gunnislake team lacking several key players took 20 points from a match that they won comfortably. Sterner tests will lie ahead, but it was a promising start to a new season at what is expected to be a higher standard of cricket in a League dominated by teams from last year’s fourth division.
Scores: Grampound Road III 147 all out (Gurney 47; Boundy 5-27), Gunnislake 149 for 3 (Graber 64no, Beare 26no; Osborne 3-11). Gunnislake (20 points) beat Grampound Road III (4 points) by seven wickets.