Ordulph Taverners v Bude THE top of the table clash between Tamar League leaders Bude and second place Ordulph Taverners took place on Saturday at Kelly College. Bude first team not having a fixture enabled them to come with a strong side including their ?overseas? Australian all rounder Rhodes. With this in mind Ordulph, under the stewardship of Bridgewater, knew they had to be at their best. Losing the toss, Ordulph were, not for the first time this season, put in to bat on a damp wicket. Any advantage Bude had from this was soon squandered by some early indisciplined bowling from their opening attack which resulted in a glut of wides and ?no balls?. In fact at one stage with the Ordulph score on 22 only one had come from the bat. Eventually finding their line, Bude took the wickets of Ordulph openers Statton and Pedrick. This brought to the crease Bridgewater and Cleave and an excellent partnership started to blossom. Cleave batted with a maturity beyond his years in supporting Bridgewater who, despite an early drop, batted fluently and never really looked in any further trouble. Even with the arrival to the Bude attack of their Australian bowler Rhodes, Cleave and Bridgewater continued to score freely and pushed the Ordulph score along at a good rate. One particularly good over resulted in Bridgewater clattering Rhodes for 11 including a monster six. Eventually though Cleave fell to Metherell for an outstanding 37 and Rhodes removed Bridgewater?s leg stump after an exceptional knock of 82. With the exception of Wayne Downham who smacked a useful 13 the rest of the Ordulph tail did precious little wagging, falling cheaply to the tight bowling of Rhodes (3 for 26 off 9) and Metherell (5 for 49 off 10). All out for 185, the Ordulph considered they had done a good job on a wicket that never looked likely to yield that sort of score. A good start was needed by Bude to catch the Ordulph score and it did not happen. This could mainly be attributed to a superb display of tight off stump bowling from Bridgewater (2 for 17 off 12), supported admirably by Downham (2 for 28 off 12), which kept the Bude batsmen well and truly pinned down, with their score progressing at a snail?s pace. Just as a Bude batsman looked like getting in, a wicket would fall and this pattern continued throughout the innings. With Bude well behind the run rate the arrival of Rhodes (24) to the crease briefly looked like kick starting some momentum for them as he looked for runs. His effectiveness however was blunted by some good field changes from Bridgewater which frustrated Rhodes as the strike was denied him. The pressure for runs eventually caused his removal with a sharp stumping from Baskerville off the thoughtful bowling of Murphey as he attempted charging the bowler down the wicket. With his removal, the score on 70 and only 10 overs left, any hope Bude had of winning had all but evaporated. Some stubborn resistance in particular from Moore (16 not out) and Fretwell (10 not out) allowed Bude to reach 120 for 8 to pick up a couple of batting points. This was however the Ordulph?s day, winning by 65 runs to leapfrog Bude and go top of the league. It was an all round team effort with a brace of wickets each for Lethbridge, Bridgewater, Downham and also Murphey in an excellent debut spell of bowling for the Ordulph. Murphey also managed an outstanding one handed catch which will take some beating. Next week Ordulph travel to Cornwood. Ordulph man of the match, S Cleave. Points: Ordulph 19; Bude 8.
