Buckley Cup

LAST Wednesday evening brought Okehampton to Rew Meadow for the first-ever meeting between the two clubs in the T20 Buckley Cup.

After winning the toss Belstone skipper Richard Drake elected to bowl on a somewhat soft wicket.

The Oke openers started cautiously with no run off the first six balls. The next over brought the first wicket and with it new bat Jack Barkwell; he accompanied Gary Sizmur and they looked to open up, striking well and hitting anything loose to the fence.

Both retired soon and the middle order chipped in here and there with useful runs on the tricky batting surface. This included returning Belstone player Rob Sandercock who lined up as the opposition captain this time.

Despite his inside knowledge Sandercock could not handle the raw pace of Dave Smallacombe who had him trapped leg before wicket. Number eight bat Holland also contributed well in the late overs with an unbeaten 28. Oke finished their innings on a decent score of 132 given the conditions.

With an under strength side, Belstone knew a steady start was key. The openers negotiated the first few overs well before Jack Hatton was given out lbw with the score on 24.

With the Oke attack bowling well, Belstone continued to lose wickets at regular intervals throughout the innings with only Alex Jopling and Matt Dennis managing scores in double figures. By the 20 over mark Belstone had struggled to 85-9 in a poor batting performance. 

Okehampton (14pts) beat Belstone (6pts) by 47 runs.