Tavistock firsts v Hatherleigh firsts

TAVISTOCK travelled to Hatherleigh on Saturday with a weakened side and knew they that a daunting task lay ahead.

Hatherleigh won the toss and put Tavistock into bat. Early wickets fell and at 37-3 were in trouble.

Visiting captain Dave Manning and Jay Stevens steadied the ship but two quick wickets put the visitors on the back foot at 84-5. Enter young 12 year old James White, scorer of four centuries in U13s cricket who joined Manning in a partnership of 52, in which he was dominant, hitting two sixes and two fours in a well made 31. Manning played a captain’s innings and along with Chris Monger and James McGahey took the score to more than 200 with Manning hitting 86 and Tavistock closing at 244 for 9.

Chris Neilson was the pick of the Hatherleigh bowlers with 3-24.

It looked a slightly below par score so the young Tavistock side would need to perform well to keep the home side in check.

Good fielding and bowling kept the score manageable. Many batsmen came in but did not go on as Tavistock kept taking wickets.

Jonty Netwon bowled a great spell taking four vital wickets.

At 187-7 the game was in the balance as Jamie Stephens, Devon Lions’ captain, bowled a miserly spell, taking 2-23 in 10 overs.

Captain Lake attempted big shots to take the game away from Tavistock, hitting fast bowler Jay Stevens over his head for six, leaving only 10 required from the last over.

However, James McGahey kept the runs down to one from the first three balls and then Lake tried to hit a six and was brilliantly stumped by Manning to give Tavistock a thrilling victory by eight runs.