Belstone v President's XI

After a damp morning the game got underway as a reduced 30-over match with the President's skipper Daryl Chapman winning the toss and asking Belstone to bat.

Belstone struggled 40-3 at not much more than two-an-over for the first 15 in the face of hostile bowling from Rob Mutch and Williams with Chris Walpole taking most of that time to make just eight.

The batting then picked up pace with Jimmy Ewen (39) striking five boundaries and Scott Tremain (29) and Phil Woods (12) both hitting sixes in the same Neil Palmer over. Graham Woods also chipped in with a useful 17 before Mutch returned to take three wickets in his last ten deliveries to finish with figures of four for seven from six overs.

Cleave Collins departed early in the President's chase of 132 for victory as Harry Bushin and Jonathan Parsons got through their six overs apiece while only conceding a combined 25 runs. Richard Boarder (18), Dennis Edwards (17) and Mutch (17) all got out just as they were looking set and at 70-4 in the 21st over the match was still in the balance.

Harry Geering then joined Chapman and proceeded to make the chase look simple with a fluent knock of 40 not out. Chapman contributed 17 not out to the unbroken partnership of 63 which saw the President's XI sweep to a six wicket win with almost seven overs to spare to make it three wins on the trot for Peter Hammond's team.

n The Buckley Cup ended in somewhat of an anticlimax last week when the opponents in both Tedburn St Mary and Belstone's final games were unable to raise a team. This gave 10 points each to Tedburn and Belstone which was not quite enough for either of them to overtake Spreyton who had already finished their 12 fixtures. Spreyton thus are the winners of the trophy which they last raised in 2007.