BELSTONE?S league season got off to an exciting start on Sunday when Torquay visited Rew Meadow for a Division Two game. Put in to bat on a pitch that gave all the bowlers some assistance, Torquay struggled to a 40 over total of 124 for nine entirely indebted to the innings of Michael Pugh. Coming in in the second over he was the only Torquay batsman to play with real authority, contributing 77 elegant runs (10 fours and 2 sixes) in 97 minutes before being sixth out with the score on 106, gloving a sharply rising ball from Chris Gomersall to keeper Phil Woods. Andrew Patterson and Jonathan Parsons were the most economical of the Belstone bowlers, both finishing their nine over spells with two wickets for 17 runs. Needing to score at little more than three an over Belstone made a solid start as Pete Gross (9) and Richard Drake (25) put on 33 for the first wicket. A third wicket partnership of 70 in 48 minutes between skipper Wayne Pearce (14) and Johnny Coburn, who hit a series of powerful drives in his 54 (9 fours and a six) appeared to take the home team to the brink of an easy victory, with just 13 runs needed off seven overs with six wickets in hand. Pugh?s fine all round game then continued as he induced a series of unnecessarily rash strokes in the middle order as the score declined from 112 for four to 116 for eight in 12 desperate minutes, with four ducks and the only runs coming from byes to the boundary. Suddenly the game was on a knife edge with Pugh having taken four wickets for four runs in seven overs. The calm heads of Patterson and Gomersall then prevailed as the final runs were scampered with eight balls to spare to give Belstone a two wicket victory. Belstone man-of-the-match: Johnny Coburn.