Friendly Thorveton v Belstone BELSTONE's first-ever visit to Thorverton was a low-scoring match dominated by accurate bowling interspersed with a few patches of big hitting. The tone was set when Thorverton could only struggle to 37-2 off the first 15 overs but then Dan Beatty suddenly hit 16 off Harry Bushin's last over to slightly dent his figures (8-2-27-1). Beatty was bowled by Callum Mallett's third ball for 17 just as he threatened to cut loose and Mallett also ended Harry Choules careful hour-long innings of 31 when the score had reached 100. Mallett (8-0-30-4) and Dan Fogerty (7-0-24-2) kept the middle order quiet with only young Jake Choules, playing his first senior game, reaching double figures after that, scoring 20 before he edged a sharp chance to Chris Walpole in the gully off left-armer Tom Boother. The same combination accounted for Owen with Boother finishing with impressive figures of eight overs, 2-16 as Thorverton, who unusually had five left-handers in their line-up, reached a final 40-over total of 140 for nine. Belstone opener Matt Dennis hit three early boundaries but when he was out the innings virtually ground to a halt in the face of accurate bowling from Paul Jordan (8-4-9-2) and James Hope (7.5-2-10-3). Scott Tremain played a number of well-timed attacking strokes but they mostly found the fielders so that his innings of 18 occupied 75 minutes. Cheap wickets fell regularly at the other end and it was only Tom Fogerty, top-scoring with 28 and sharing a partnership of 23 for the seventh wicket with his brother Dan, who offered much resistance. The innings tricked on for all but seven balls of the 40 overs until they were all out for 110, but at no time did Belstone look like reaching what had at first seemed an eminently gettable score.