Buckley Cup

Belstone v Okehampton

BELSTONE suffered their first defeat of the season in the midweek T20 cup competition when visitors Okehampton secured a 25 run win.

Oke got off to a decent start with a 31 run partnership in six overs before Doug Little bowled Squire for nine, then quickly followed by also bowling Reese Palmer for 16.

Luke Mortimore hit five boundaries before retiring (under the Buckley rules) for a rapid 25 and with Tom McGrattan also batting well, Okehampton reached a healthy 74-2 with eight overs to go.

However, then Callum Mallett, took two quick wickets as did Matt Dennis at the other end as the innings faltered to 86-6.

Skipper Richard Drake applied the coup de grace taking the last four wickets in six balls while conceding one run, including his first ever hat-trick to end the innings thanks to a low caught and bowled, a simple catch in the covers by Matt Dennis and a stumping by Jamie Walker of Ryan Gross - all of which meant that eight wickets had fallen 22 runs.

Needing 97 to win Belstone never really recovered from a poor start which saw Sam Palmer run out from the third ball of the innings.

Wickets fell regularly to Holland (4-0-8-3) and captain Rob Sandercock (4-0-13-2) leaving the score on 33 for six at the half way point.

Drake (12) and Ryan Dennis (19) added a few but couldn’t regain enough momentum and it was left to Courtier (3-0-15-2) to take the last wicket off the final ball of the 20 overs for the comfortable Okehampton victory.