A TEAM of young cricketers from Hatherleigh who have not lost a single game this summer face their biggest test yet this weekend. Hatherleigh Under-11s are due to take on the Exeter St James team this Saturday (September 2). Home advantage will be on Hatherleigh?s side this time after they came through a recent play-off match in Paignton to progress to the final of a Devon-wide knockout competition. After winning the North Devon League without losing a single game, the youngsters went forward to the John Stevens Cup, where they were considered underdogs for the game against Paignton. However, after scoring a fine 136 runs for six wickets in their innings, the Hatherleigh team reduced Paignton to 59 all out, to win the 30 over game with 14 overs to spare. Hatherleigh had got off to a shaky start and were 7 for 2 at one stage, but 10-year-old Billy Searle played a magnificent innings and scored a brilliant 50. With the ball it was a team effort, with Paul Penberthy, Jack Hayman, Jack Cherrington and Luke Reynolds all grabbing two wickets each. Luke is one of identical twins in the team and his brother Morgan is Hatherleigh?s wicket-keeper. The other two wickets came via run outs. Coach Paul Cooper said he was very proud of his team. ?A lot of the boys only started playing in the last two years, so they have done really well to come this far,? he said. Paul said the team?s success was also down to the valuable coaching help of Andrew Fishleigh and Peter Cooper, both aged 14, who the younger players looked up to. Paul said many of the team had been nervous, but had not let that affect their performance. ?The umpire said to me afterwards that my boys were so wound up that when one lad was batting, he could see his legs were shaking,? Paul said.
