Walkham Valley v Yealm
ANOTHER fine evening's cricket was enjoyed at Walkhamton when the home side hosted Yealm in glorious sunshine.
Yealm opted to bat first and soon found themselves up against it as the Walkham bowling and fielding again showed significant improvements.
B Furzeland, P Gibb, J Bennett and P Shepherd all got off to vigorous starts, but had their efforts nipped in the bud by a series of excellent catches.
Nick Shutt brought off two of those catches in fine style on the mid-wicket boundary, while from the other end, James Hills plucked one out of the air on the square leg boundary.
There were also good efforts from J Berry, Alistair Peers and Jim Knight, who kept wicket splendidly. Of the bowlers, John Dowse, playing in his first game, and the youngest member of the team, Paul Gibbins, both took two wickets each to clean up the Yealm batting for a total of 110 runs.
Walkham got off to another steady start from Hills and Richard Berry, before Hills fell to a snick from Martin.
R Berry and Sandy Ralph kept the momentum going before Berry was caught on the boundary for 24. Ralph was then joined by J Berry and the steady progress continued until Ralph retired for 27 well taken runs, bringing debutante John Dowse to the crease.
Despite good spells of tight bowling from A Martin, J Hurley and P Finch, in the latter stages J Berry plundered three sixes in five balls, before retiring on 27 to leave Dowse and Alistair Peers to see the Walkham side home to an unexpectedly comfortable victory by 7 wickets with more than three overs to spare.
This was probably the best all-round performance by Walkham in their short history.