Whitchurch v Chairman's XI

WHITCHURCH wound up the season on Sunday with this traditional match.

Whitchurch batted first and openers Phil Mansfield and Ewen Rae made a steady start, progressing to 27 from the first 6 overs. In the 7th over Rae was stumped by Richie Freedman off the bowling of Martin Credicott for 11 and in the following over Ian Gray cut a widish ball from Mike Chetwynd straight into the hands of Credicott at point.

Richard Hall made 10 before getting an inside edge onto his stumps off Chris Cotterell's bowling. Mansfield made 41 before being bowled by Credicott and Darren Chappell made a rapid 42 before hitting a low full toss from Cotterell straight back into the hands of the bowler.

Steve Hodge and Mark Warwick both fell cheaply to Cotterell and it was left to Stuart Davies and Dean Elliott, who both made 21, to take the Whitchurch total up to 165 from their 40 overs. Cotterell was the most successful bowler taking 4 for 24 and Stewart Priscott had the impressive figures of 2 for 12 from 7.3 overs. Keeper Richie Freedman had an excellent afternoon, taking three sharp stumpings and conceding only 1 bye.

The Chairman's XI openers Ed Hulme and Mark Shorrock, put on 59 for the first wicket in 11 overs before Shorrock was caught at slip by Chappell off the bowling of Neil Tamblin. Hulme was stumped by Steve Hodge for 48 off the bowling of Andy Alford, who also bowled Chris Cotterell for 31 and trapped John McGahey LBW for 27.

But the Whitchurch bowling was never consistent enough to contain the Chairman's team and Martin Credicott (24 no) continued where he had left off in Saturday's Tamar League match to see his team home with 8 overs and 6 wickets to spare. Alford finished with figures of 3 for 40, Tamblin took 1 for 35 and Phil Mansfield bowled well without any luck.

Umpires were immediate past chairman Rob Rawlings and current vice-chairman Kit Reeve, neither of whom put a foot wrong.

Whitchurch will be entering two teams in the indoor league this winter and are already looking forward to the 2003 summer season, when they hope to improve on this year's third place in the league and win promotion.