North Devon one

Filleigh v Belstone

THE Belstone team were in confident mood travelling to Filleigh, having beaten high flyers Sandford Cricket Club convincingly the previous week.

The conditions looked favourable for the bowlers, with some rain having occurred in the morning, low cloud and a humid feel to the air.

Captain Drake won the toss and decided to bat. Openers Eddy Jones and Phil Woods came to the crease. Jones was out, caught at first slip for seven. This brought Matty Dennis to the middle. He and Woods batted nicely, taking the score to 49-1after ten overs. This steady progress continued up until drinks and the halfway point of 20 overs, with both Woods and Dennis playing some awesomely powerful, yet cultured shots for 100-1.

Dennis then fell soon after drinks, bowled by one that kept low from the opposition’s skipper Jas Kalsi. Captain Richard Drake immediately looked to dominate the Filleigh bowling attack, booming some early boundaries to bounce the score along; this approach coupled with Wood’s powerful and elegant stroke play was causing a real headache for the Filleigh attack, with Woods now in the nineties.

However, he fell for 96 after a superb catch at square leg by Filleigh youngster Emily Ward. Another great innings from Woods, which lasted 129 minutes and included 14 boundaries and one huge six. Stewart then supported Drake well, who soon reached his first 50 of the season with some great improvisations and shot making. Belstone closed at tea, with the score on 260-4 from their 40 overs.

Belstone went into the field three short of their recognised bowlers for the day and that this would be no easy ride against a Filleigh side who had batted well in recent weeks.

This situation was not helped when opening bowler Ryan Dennis could only bowl two balls due to a muscle strain in his side.

Filleigh opener Davies then looked to accelerate quickly, which he did with some lovely shots, punishing some loose bowling by the Belstone attack.

Mark Whiteside bowled well from the bottom end, but was not supported from the other end. This led to Filleigh to 53 for the loss of no wicket after ten overs.

Phil Dennis now came into the attack, with his swinging deliveries at least giving the Filleigh batsman something new to think about — this soon bore fruit as Dennis removed opener Squire for 38.

This brought in an overseas player at number three in the form of Saker, who looked to attack and continued the good work from Squire and Davies, who was soon to reach his 50, eventually being removed for 68 — a good innings.

This now left Saker and Filleigh captain Jas Kalsi at the crease, who looked in scintillating form, crashing the ball to all parts of the ground, including some huge sixes straight down the ground.

Even so, the game was still hanging in the balance going into the final 10 overs, with Filleigh still needing 89 runs to clinch victory.

The lack of recognised bowlers for Belstone now really showed as Kalsi continued to spank the bowling to all corners of the ground - even Drake had to turn his arm over to allow Callum Mallett to bowl the final over!

Filleigh won the game with only 3 balls remaining - 260 was the highest losing score ever posted in the history of Belstone Cricket Club, but all credit to Filleigh, who competed hard until the very end.

The stand out man for Filleigh was Jas Kalsi, who finished with an unbeaten 70, which included six fours and four sixes.