BELSTONE suffered their second loss of the season in the South Devon league on Sunday at Torquay with the home team winning by 5 wickets. Torquay won the toss and elected to field first. Pete Gross (45) and Richard Drake (40) got the visitors off to a solid start against good tight bowling by the home team. The pair put on 65 for the first wicket in 18 overs before Drake was bowled. Dennis Edwards (15) and Phil Woods (26) continued to support Gross as the run rate steadily increased. It was left to Andrew Paterson (43) and the lower order to take the score above 200 with 41 runs coming off the last three overs. Belstone?s final score of 208/8 looked sufficient to secure victory. Torquay?s reply got off to a fast start with 80 runs coming off the first 15 overs. The introduction of Paterson (9-1-24-1) into the attack slowed the scoring rate from one end but the home team?s batsmen continued to take runs off the other Belstone bowlers. At the halfway mark of their innings Torquay had reached 100/4 with the game in the balance. However, a fine partnership of 86 between Andy Yau (40) and Dave Bolland (56) turned the game towards the home team. Scott Tremain (3-0-13-1) dismissed Yau in his first over but Bolland continued to bat sensibly hitting the winning runs off the first ball of the last over. Belstone man-of-the-match: Pete Gross. This Saturday sees the annual Presidents Day match followed by a South Devon league game on Sunday against Exeter. Both games are at Rew Meadow.