Devon Cricket Board - Sandford inch closer to safety

Sandford inch closer to safety

CORNWOOD’S worries at the bottom of the Premier Division took a turn for the worse as they went down by 15 runs at Sandford.
Sandford are the first team Cornwood have to get in front of on their way out of the bottom two, so the game was a must-win affair for them.
Defeat means Cornwood are now 20 points behind Sandford, which is bad enough, but 30 points behind Heathcoat, who have to be overtaken to reach safety.
Cornwood showed the sort of doggedness they will need to scramble to safety in an absorbing game, but it wasn’t enough.
Sandford’s total of 224 for seven was built around two key stands of 62 and 81.
Russell Discombe (41) and Ryan Glass (28) put in 62 for the second wicket after opener Tom Mitchum went cheaply to Byron Langley (2-27).
Richard Tucker (50) and Adrian Small (54) then added 81 for the fourth wicket, getting Sandford up to 172 for four.
The stand ended when Tucker was caught on the boundary having a go at Elliot Staddon.
Langley was the most effective of the Cornwood bowlers, although Matt Butterworth and Jason Hall were not far behind in economy terms.
Cornwood had to go for it all the way and didn’t let some early setbacks such as losing Jackson Thompson and Mark Horwell to Jamie Palmer (5-40) deter them.
Steve Lambert dug in for a dogged 79 and with help from Ryan Rickard (25), Hall (13) and Staddon (14) chipped and chiseled away at the deficit.
When Lambert was seventh out at 159 with 15 overs to go, Sandford thought they were done. They weren’t.
Last pair Butterworth (21) and Adam Goodliffe kept going for it and their stand had reached 16 when skipper Palmer brought himself back on.
Butterworth whacked the first ball for six – then missed the second one and was cleaned out.

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