Friendly

Lustleigh v Belstone

BELSTONE travelled to Lustleigh’s picturesque ground for an entertaining friendly which saw both sides eying up the short River Wray-side boundary into which most of the eight Belstone and six Lustleigh sixes landed.

The visitors won the toss and batted; six of their top seven batsmen made good contributions — Dan Fogerty top scoring with 43 which included three sixes and four fours.

John Wright bowled a lively seven over spell, finding lift and movement off the pitch, while taking three for 15 with four maidens.

At 202-5 with five overs still to go Belstone were well placed to cash in on some friendly bowling but young Watson struck three times to bring the innings to a premature finish on 219 all out with an over unused.

Two wickets in Tom Fogerty’s first over and then two more by the time the score had reached 52 began to lull the visitors into thinking the game was theirs.

Steve and Shaun Wright had other ideas, bringing Lustleigh right back into the match, with a partnership of 98 in 20 overs for the fifth wicket. They were then dismissed in successive balls — both edging to slip where Chris Walpole held the chances as he dived forward — Shaun for 43 off the bowling of Matt Dennis, and Steve for 48 off Doug Little.

Two balls later Little picked up another wicket as Tom Boother took a fine diving one-handed catch at mid wicket to send back Watson for a duck, which meant three wickets had fallen with the score on 150.

Lustleigh surged back again as John Wright hit two sixes into the river, joining Duncan Manners-Chapman (13 not out) in a partnership that looked to be a match-winner. Wright perished, however, for 25 trying for another six, caught on the long-off boundary by Dan Fogerty off Phil Dennis.

Dennis quickly mopped up the last two wickets to finish with the game’s best figures, three wickets in 13 balls for eight runs conceded, leaving Belstone the winners by 28 runs.