Walkham Valley v Carval Computing

GUESTS Carval Computing got of to a fine start on Wednesday evening as Goard and Short put on an opening stand of 50, Short doing most of the damage with some fine, aggressive hitting before retiring undefeated.

Goard was bowled by J Berry, but Jefferies (24), Smith (16) and Lewis (14) kept their score rolling, to post a total of 122 for 2 and set up an interesting chase for Walkhampton.

The only other wicket to fall went to Paul Gibbings, as R Berry took a fine catch in the deep.

The classy opening partnership of James Hills and Richard Berry got Walkham off to an excellent start, with both registering undefeated scores of 27 in an opening stand of 53 at about 8 runs an over.

Jim Knight and Sandy Ralph kept the scoreboard ticking over, but could not penetrate the field as often as they wanted against tight bowling, particularly from Sweby, Lewis and Jefferies, so the game went to the wire.

With Knight out for a gutsy 14, Ralph tried his level best to keep the target achievable.

With one over left, Walkham needed 12 runs to seal a memorable victory, and when Ralph dispatched the first ball from Sweby to long on for a massive 6, which brought about his retirement for 29 runs, the chase was really on. However, both Alistair Peers and J Berry then perished in quick succession, caught on the boundary going for glory, leaving Ken Kay to try to salvage something off the last ball. But it was not to be, as he was run out.

A close run thing, but Walkham lost by four runs to the steadier bowling of Carval.