THIS was a battle between last year?s A Division Champions Gunnislake and the B Division Champions Ordulph. Gunnislake won the toss in this Tamar League match and decided to bowl. Having been put into bat, the Ordulph struggled to make any headway against the Gunnislake accurate attack of Hugo (3 for 23) and A Pethick. To make things worse two wickets fell for as many runs. The ship was steadied however with Mansfield (50) and Wellard (11) at the crease, although the runs were still hard to come by, at least wickets had stopped falling for a while. With the introduction of Astley to the attack things got even worse, as wickets again began to fall at regular intervals. With the exception of Wellard and Mansfield no other Ordulph batsman troubled double figures. Mansfield however patiently persevered and kept some semblance of an innings together for the Ordulph with a valuable half-century, an excellent knock. Some bad calling resulting in a couple of unnecessary run outs did nothing to help the Ordulph cause. A great spell of bowling from Hugo and Astley taking three wickets apiece finished the job off restricting Ordulph to a very modest 109. Defending such a small total was a daunting task for the Ordulph bowlers, which got even worse when Bridgewater had to bow out of the attack with an injury. Matt Mills and Phil Mansfield rose to the challenge admirably though with a fine display of controlled bowling that tore into the Gunnislake batsmen. In a ten over spell they removed 6 batsmen (3 each) with the score having only reached 48. At this point Ordulph looked like achieving the unthinkable and winning the game. Not to be though. Astley came to the rescue again with a measured knock that punished anything not on line and length. With Hugo providing Astley with good support from the other end, they took the score to within 10 of the Ordulph total before Hugo fell to the guile of Smith. With no real batting to come, this wicket fell four or five overs too late for the Ordulph cause as Astley finished the job off ending up on 57 not out. Taking three catches as well, cemented Astley?s massive contribution to the game. This match was Andy Astley?s final game for Gunnislake as the Navy has called him back to sea service. All the League will agree his presence and contributions on the field over the years have been massive. Gunnislake won by three wickets.
