HATHERLEIGH skipper Mark Lake breathed a huge sigh of relief after his side scraped a two-wicket win over Tavistock at the Ring, writes Conrad Sutcliffe.

Hatherleigh were all out for 140 in the 46th of their 50 overs, which was a better score than it looked on a wet day on the edge of Dartmoor.

Tavistock struggled to 13 for three early on – losing Steve Luffman in the first over did not help – then recovered to 100 for four before fading to 136 all out and a four-run defeat.

Only Abbotskerswell (45pts) are below Tavistock (55) in a division with two relegation places. Tavistock need to find eight points to get past Clyst SG (62) and out of the basement.

Hatherleigh’s man of the moment was all-rounder Jasper Presswell, who top scored on 42 then ran through Tavistock’s lower order on the way to a four-for-25 haul.

Presswell and skipper Lake (22) rescued Hatherleigh from an anxious 63 for seven after a gong over from Tim Swanepoel (2-30) and Mo Shawkat (3-39). Their stand of 61 was crucial in determining a low-scoring game.

Lake (2-20) had a couple of early wickets as Tavistock laboured to get started on the chase.

After Dave Manning (46) and Will Scott-Munden (32) put on 87, it was game back on. But not for long!

Paul Heard had Manning caught behind, Presswell engineered the run-out of Scott-Munden, and three more wickets fell as Tavistock collapsed to 110 for eight.

Tumelo Yeki batted Tavistock back into contention with 28 off 31 balls, only for Presswell to trap him lbw with five needed to win. Last man Swanepoel was bowled by the next ball.

Lake was not embarrassed to say his team were fortunate to win the game.

“It was good to win a game we probably did not deserve to as we were poor for 75 per cent of it,” said Lake.

“Our depth with the bat got us something we had a slim chance of defending and we managed to do that.

“We need to buck our ideas up in the coming weeks…”