Devon D West

St Marychurch Old Boys v Yelverton firsts

THE Yelverton Bohemians were looking for a victory against league new boys St Marychurch Old Boy at the secluded Netherton Park ground perched above the Teign estuary.

Bohemians captain, Sam Crompton, called correctly at the toss and invited the Old Boys to bat on a grassy and damp-looking wicket.

The visiting bowlers were looking for a little more consistency to aid in their quest for early wickets. The Old Boys opening batsman, G Ibbotson and Steve Myers, initially frustrated the Yelverton openers and despite not scoring quickly, did not look like giving their wickets away on a slow and low wicket.

However the introduction of change bowlers was the catalyst for an Old Boys collapse. First Dan Keylock (2-20) enticed Ibbotson into driving expansively at a full pitched delivery, the swing back into the left hander seeing the ball go through the ‘gate’ and crash into the timbers; this was followed by spinner Christiaan Van Niekerk (5-8) bowling Myers in the next over.

Keylock was at it again in the following over, Stephen Davies feathering a catch behind trying to work a length delivery into the offside. Van Niekerk also had further success, bowling James McConnell with a classic off spin delivery to leave the Old Boys at 25-4.

There followed a period of Old Boys resistance, with Marcus Thompson and Barry Griffiths consolidating somewhat, watchfully playing out a number of overs with Thompson in particular putting away the bad balls well.

The reintroduction of opening bowler Hadleigh Scott-Kirk saw Yelverton make the breakthrough they needed. With the score on 50 exactly, Thompson punched a Scott-Kirk full toss straight to a grateful Van Niekerk at short extra cover. The loss of this wicket prompted a full-scale collapse, with Van Niekerk and Scott-Kirk keeping the ball pitched up and claiming a succession of wickets lbw or bowled to leave the Old Boys 56 all out after only 26.4 of their allotted 45 overs.

With full bowling points secured, the Bohemians now knew that they could only afford to lose two wickets on the chase in order to claim full batting points – a potentially tricky assignment on a wicket still offering movement off of the seam.

Geoff Brain and Dan Cooper opened the Yelverton innings and were quickly into their stride, helped by a number of loose deliveries from the Old Boys opening bowlers Roy Prentice and Griffiths. With the score on 23, Brain became the second batsman in the match to chip a full toss to extra cover and departed for 10 runs scored.

Cooper was joined by Richard Townsend (13 not out) and the two continued to score at a steady rate, pressurising the fielders and dispatching any bad balls to the boundary.

With the score at 55 Cooper fell for a well-made 30 runs, bowled driving at a Thompson yorker. All that remained was for Van Niekerk (4no) to see Yelverton over the line with a four through midwicket from his third ball faced, securing a valuable 20 points and a fourth successive win for the Bohemians.