Devon Cricket Board - Cornwood back on bottom of table

Cornwood back on bottom of table

CORNWOOD hit rock bottom in the Premier Division after going down by 54 runs to Bovey Tracey.
Bovey haven’t been having a great time themselves and Corns’ skipper Jason Hall had hoped the game would offer a leg-up out of the bottom two.
Instead, Cornwood went in the opposite direction as Torquay won at Sandford to go past them.
Bovey posted 176 for six in a rain-reduced allocation of 43 overs.
Cornwood’s bowlers worked hard to keep the Bovey batters in check with Byron Langley (2-27), Matt Skeemer (1-21) and Adam Goodliffe (1-21) hard to get away.
When Devon batsman Matt Golding was sent back by Goodliffe, Bovey were an unimpressive 72 for four in the 21^st over.
A stand of 31 between skipper Andy Fairbairn and Malcolm Lake (26) got Bovey moving before Hall ended their fun in the space of seven balls.
Cornwood couldn’t finish Bovey off through and ended up paying the price for letting former Devon captain Chris Bradley and Nathan Roberts hang around.
Bradley kept his end intact to make 19 while Roberts chiseled out 45 off 54 balls towards their unbroken stand of 68.
Cornwood didn’t get the start they wanted as Bovey’s bowlers coshed them from the start.
Seamers Roberts and Ryan Bougourd offered little to hit and the spinners offered no relief either.
Lake got the prized wicket of Jackson Thompson for one, then Sam Hickenbottom (2-13) and Golding (3-25) got into the middle order.
When Hall was sixth out on 87 the writing was on the wall.
Opener Chris Parker soldiered on until the 35^th over when Golding spun him out for 46 off 103 balls.
Bougourd (2-9) and Roberts (1-24) returned to knock over the tail.
Nick Goodliffe, Cornwood’s chairman of selectors, said there were one or two plusses but overall it wasn’t a game to dwell on.
“Byron Langley again showed promise with the new ball, bowling economically and tightly, accounting for both Bovey openers with only 37 on the board,” said Goodliffe.
“Apart from Chris Parker our batsmen really struggled to get in and stay in, eventually running out of steam.
“The team felt very disappointed at the end of a game which was certainly there for the taking at a few stages.
“We now look forward to a home tie against North Devon and will be aiming to find the form needed to start pushing ourselves up the table.”

After a patchy start to the season Bovey are up to fifth and skipper Andy Fairbairn is talking about climbing higher.

“That's two wins in a row now, which is a good feeling for everyone,” said Fairbairn.

“Nathan and Chris batted well at the end of our innings to get us to a reasonable score.

“Our bowling and fielding was excellent to win the game. Matt Golding bowled beautifully and I was really pleased that he got three wickets for his efforts.

“We have eight bowlers who could all bowl their allocation each week, so I always have an option to go to, which is great as captain.

We have a really tough game against Plymouth this week but will be looking to get our third win in a row and keep our little run going.”

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