Bond Timber Cornwall Cricket League

Division Two East — Saturday, June 5

Tideford

Holsworthy (70-6)

DAVID Lockett and Mike Burnett took two wickets each as Tideford had Holsworthy in trouble before the persistent rain brought a halt to proceedings at the Port Eliot Estate Ground.

Play didn’t start till 2.30pm, with captains David Lockett and Ryan Walter then agreeing to make it 30 overs per side to try and get a result.

But after 18.2 overs of the innings and the rain getting worse, the players went off the field and never returned.

After the hour delay, unsurprisingly, Lockett won the toss and chose to field, although openers Jack May and Aiden Gerry got off to a solid start in adding 29 before Gerry tried to guide Burnett through third-man and was well caught by wicket-keeper Paddy Harper.

With Chris Anderson missing, the visitors had to face two left-arm swing bowlers tailor-made for the conditions.

Although May played positively, and struck five boundaries through the off-side, Holsworthy continued to lose wickets.

May took the score to 50-1 before he got out in the same fashion as Gerry, but this time it was Lockett who got in on the act.

Lockett, the Cornwall Over-50s bowler, then got the big wicket of Matt Shepherd for four, as the destructive right-hander played all around an inswinger and was given lbw.

Walter soon went for a single, caught and bowled by Burnett, and with the weather closing in, both sides were thinking about getting bonus points – with Holsworthy hoping to get to 80 and Tideford six wickets.

Jack Greening (8) struck a couple of boundaries before he guided spinner Dan Robotham’s delivery straight into the gloves of the delighted Harper.

Rob Mitchell (0) looked to smash Joe Milligan out of the ground and was bowled, giving Tideford three bowling points.

With the weather gradually getting worse, both captains decided enough was enough after that ball, with Tideford earning nine points and Holsworthy, seven.

This weekend, Tideford make the long trip up to Bude, while Holsworthy host winless St Minver.

Tideford skipper David Lockett said: “With only four games completed out of eight for us, in my opinion the league hasn’t really settled down yet and a couple of wins for anyone will see them jump half a dozen places. We’ve had two games rained off when we’ve been on top, but that’s cricket.

“Again, we’ll have a few players unavailable when we go to Bude this week, but that seems to be the new norm. We will just hope for some good weather for a few weeks so we can all play cricket.”

Holsworthy captain Ryan Walter praised Lockett for his co-operation.

He said: “At about 60-4, we agreed that if it gets much worse we’ll come off in a couple of overs’ time, and that’s when we lost the next two wickets. In the end the weather was a bit much, and David was very fair and we both came to an agreement that was enough.”

Holsworthy host St Minver on Saturday, and Walter believes the Trees need a win.

He said: “It’s a big game for us this week in the circumstances considering the result against Callington and the abandonment on Saturday.

“We should have Sam (Stacey), Fraser (Priest) and Brendon (Harris) all back which will help, but we just need to get back to playing good, basic cricket.

“It’s been an odd start to the season weather wise, so hopefully we can get back to playing every week and picking up some positive results.”