The Last Game
Fowey v Werrington II (away)
Despite McNair and Tom Crapp's best efforts to persuade people to make the long trip to Werrington, shockingly the 1's played out their last game with only 8 players, with 2 of those Mark Bennetts and Crapp himself carrying injuries!
But rather than be downbeat about it, the 8 players decided to buck up and put in maximum effort for one another to try and give Werrington a competitive game. Losing the toss in his first ever outing as captain, Crapp's men were asked to bat on a very wet one with drizzle in the air. Desperate to end on a high Andrew Bennetts was eager to get to the crease and opened up with Sykes and despite facing some decent bowling in difficult conditions the ever reliable pair put on yet another 100+ partnership with both offering some excellent strokeplay which the rest of us sat back and enjoyed (apart from McNair and Sloman who had to endure long umpiring stints!). Sykes reached yet another 50 however Bennetts fell just 4 short when deceived in flight offered a routine caught and bowled to Ollie Bailey. Entering the arena at number 3 Mark Bennetts joined Sykes in the middle but shortly after play was interrupted by some heavier rain and after finally starting play again, just 1 ball was bowled when the players had to leave the field again. The game was reduced to 40 overs and with just 10 or so left to go Sykes and Bennetts aimed to push on but by now the wicket was wet and zippy meaning timing the ball would be a challenge from here on in. Sykes continued in great form though hitting a number of maximums as the sheep were made to run for cover, after a few decent hits Bennetts wound up for a lusty blow but could only swing and miss! Tom Crapp saw it through to the end but needing just 1 run for his ton off the last ball of the innings, Sykes missed out much to the disappointing delight of the home team but when you have had a 900+ runs season averaging 90 odd these little things don't really matter do they?
Fowey had amassed a very good 176-3 in wet conditions and although only had 8 players in the field with gaps everywhere, the players were determined to put in one last big effort. Mark Sloman and Darren Full opened up and bowled some great lines restricting the openers to singles with only the odd boundary creeping through, however it looked like Werrington who would hold all the luck cards with 3 catches going down in quick succession. But Fully gained a good breakthrough teasing Bailey into a big drive which spooned into the safe hands of Sykes in the covers. Fully picked up another for a very tidy brace aided by an excllent catch by McNair and with those 2 wickets finished the teams top wicket taker in his debut season, well done Beefy!! Although Crapp was suffering with a back injury, side strain, pulled groin, tight calf muscle and sore neck he bravely put himself through 2 overs and in that time picked up a vital wicket. With no one left to turn to, the batting duo of Sykes and Andrew Bennetts then shone with the ball, Sykes picking up a 2 fer in a very good spell and Bennetts rolled back the years with a vintage display of unorthodox windmill bowling! Bennetts bagged a 4 fer, including 2 in one over, the key wicket of Ollie Bailey aided by a camera dive catch by Sykes. Sloman took over for the final frontier and immediately claimed the match winning wicket of the retiring local cricketing legend Roy Cobbledick.
What a performance to wrap up the season, special praise to all 8 players who put in a truly exceptional game, in particular Pete Brabus (aka P the G) who fielded fantastically all innings.
Fowey 176-3 (W Sykes 99, A Bennetts 46), Werrington 154 (A Bennetts 4-37, D Full 2-27, W Sykes 2-31)
Saturday 8th August
Fowey vLooe (away)
Looe 222-6 (P Nance 62, D Full 3-27, I Lutton 3-67), Fowey 181-9 (D Sanchez 57*, S McNair 25, A Nance 3-54)
Fowey gained 7pts
Saturday 1st August
Fowey vMenheniot (home)
Menheniot 192-9 (A Keeble 97, M Bennetts 4-44, L Watts 4-49), Fowey 144 (A Bennetts 43, W Sykes 31, S Desarkar 3-26)
Menheniot beat Fowey by 48 runs.
Saturday 25th July
Fowey v St Blazey (home)
After a two week break due to the weather Fowey welcomed St Blazey in the second part of our local derby, 1-0 up after the away leg. A team missing Will Sykes (who told us) and Luke Watts (who didn't) welcomed back Mark Sloman, Dave Sanchez and Will Tinsley with Justin Woods filling in at the last minute for Watts.
McNair (1) lost the toss and was not surprised when St Blazey skipper Darren Kirwan inserted us, a decision universal on both sides. There was also no surprise when the bowlers dominated early on as Barney Jackson and Matt Dumont quickly settled into good lines, Dumont especially being very hard to play getting big swing both ways, including reverse!!. With Sykes out McNair (2) asked Mark Bennetts to open with him but Mark got an absolutely unplayable swinging yorker 5th ball up, even harder as the first four balls were real loseners. McNair (3) and Andrew Bennetts settled in for a long stay but neither were able to rotate the strike or score runs such was the quality of the bowling on a bowler friendly wicket. Andrew had two slices of luck but McNair's (4) seems to have deserted him dragging an away swinger onto his stumps, quickly followed by Bennetts bowled, although our scorer thought he was caught behind (D'OH) Starkie and Tinsley dug in well and although few runs were scored started to blunt the attack, setting up the second half of the innings for the team. Tinsley especially looked like a diamomd, but as all too often was then caught just as he was looking to go on, when is he going to catch the break he needs to go really big in the 1s?. Sloman joined Starkie and the trench warfare continued as they just kept keeping out the bowlers and ignoring the run rate. It was a question now of who blinked first and that was St Blazey who failed to take two chances off Sloman and then as they tried to buy a wicket with a few overs of part time bowling against the 4 and 6. In fairness this nearly paid off but it took the foot off our throats and once back into the game momentum began to be clawed back. Starks fell caught when set but this brought our ever smiling spaniard Sanchez to the crease, and although not quite finding his timing he gave us a useful impetus as we passed 120 with 8 overs to go. Kirwan finally brought back his frontline bowlers and Slowers was quickly bowled but partnerships kept being built as we finally closed our innings at 157, Matt Dumont was the pick of the Blaise bowlers with a 5 for but James Carter did not bowl out. Would this prove decisive?
Tom Crapp opened downhill with Slowers up hill and Slowers made an immediate breakthrough in his first over with Sparrow caught behind by McNair (5), Crapp quickly followed this up with James Carter also caught behind by McNair (6), but with Mark Bailey and someone batting there was no sign of Nick Carter at 3. A reasonable partnership was building between these two as both Mark and Tom struggled to maintain a swinging ball, the occasional straight one leaking runs as McNair (7) kept a very attacking off side field. Deciding to change things McNair (8) made a double change bringing on Full down and Mark Bennetts up and both quickly tied up the run rate. Bennetts bowled Bailey before McNair (8) pulled off a stumping off a leg side wide to dismiss Jackson. Kirwan and Nick Carter batted very slowly as the run rate began to build, the wicket getting harder to bat on and the bowling getting better. With Mark Bennetts tiring after 8 overs McNair (9)brought Sanchez on uphill and with Full having bowled 12 wicketless overs, although nearly claiming Nick, Mitchell downhill, and boy did they bowl well to bring us home at a canter. Two wickets apiece and a run out saw Blazey all out for 110 as we pulled off a really excellent win to move within 15 of Roche. A really good mentally strong performance from everyone followed by a barbie and beer and no one missed Sykes. The only downside being only 9 ways to mention my name, sorry Smithy I'll try harder next week!!!
Fowey 156-9 (M Sloman 37, J Starkie 29, D Sanchez 22, M Dumont 5-31), St Blazey 112 (M Horne 27, M Bennetts 3-20, O Mitchell 2-2, D Sanchez 2-8)
Fowey beat St Blazey by 44 runs
Saturday 4th July
Fowey v Lanhydrock (away)
The first game of the second half Lanhydrock entertained Fowey and at 11.00am were already trying to call off the game. Fortunately McNair showed just how much of a pain in the##### he can be by refusing to even consider such a move and promptly left for Lanhydrock getting there at 12 noon. Seeing only one area of the outfield might cause problems he let Lanhydrock know in no uncertain terms Fowey would be travelling.
With rain starting to fall at 1.45 McNair kept the team out in the rain doing warm up routines before meeting Lanhydrock captain Matt Yates on the square, with support from Andrew and Tom. Lanhydrock still did not want to start but the issue was forced and Lanhydrock batted first. McNair chose the inform Lutton and Woods to open the bowling but unfortunately for Lutz it just was not there and after a 15 ball 1st over he had to be replaced by TC but was assured he would get a second spell. Woody meanwhile bowled well, creating a half chance in the first over Starkie at short leg was unable to get a hand on. An omen of things to come. Tc was getting big swing both ways but despite plenty of good yorkers and testing deliveries could not get a breakthrough. With rain starting to fall heavier and heavier a fifteen minute break ensued after 9 overs. McNair replaced Woods with Mark Bennetts and with the wet ball no longer swinging soon repaced Tom with Full, but he only bowled 2 balls before rain forced us off again at 11 overs. This time it was long and hard and left standing water on the wicket. Many thought this was the end of things, and with the Lanhydrock groundsman walking around going 'thats it boys' things looked dire. Fortunately McNair cares little about other peoples feelings or opinions and made it quite clear we were going nowhere, after all 20 overs per side constitutes a game so we could wait till after 6 if needed.
An early, excellent tea ensued but things were still not looking good as water was still coming to the surface of the wicket when you walked on it (admitedly only the fatter of us) but again McNair would not consider an abandonement and this was finally justified when play recommenced just after 5pm. Anymore rain would spell the end of the game and with only 30 overs per side McNair chose his bowlers based purely on getting through the overs quickly. Mark Bennetts and Full bowled out first follwed by Woods and TC. We only took 2 wickets but with a wet ball, a very wet outfield it was tricky for all concerned, whether bowling the ball, fielding the ball of simply placing the field correctly and the emphasis was simply on getting the win. This unfortunately meant no overs for Mitchell and no chance for Lutton to try again but in the circumstances there was little choice. Sorry guys.
McNair and Sykes opened and a solid partnership was built. Sykes was dropped early at point and was concerned about the weather but we were always ahead of the run rate. The only real gem was being accused of 'doing a Pebba' by taking a single off the last ball of the over. I took a single off the first ball as well and left Syksie to block the middle 4. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! McNair fell for 18, getting a good ball and snicking behind but Bennetts and Sykes saw us home, with just a few narrow scrapes along the way. Sykes was dropped again, had a few edges as did Andrew. Again Sykes showed his double standards by taking a four off each of the first 5 deliveries before a single off the last as he posted an excellent (please mark) and Andrew (please again mark)to bring us home in only 12 overs.
16 points when 6 looked the most likely is a good result and reward for sheer bloodymindedness by McNair and good team concentration on a difficult day
Lanhydrock 118-2 (J Butler 56*), Fowey 119-1 (W Sykes 75*)
*Game reduced to 30 overs due to rain
Fowey beat Lanhydrock by 9wkts
Sunday 28th June
Fowey v Grampound Road II (home)
Our catch up game finally came on sunday as did the rain first thing in the morning. Fortunately Starkie and Sanchez were around to put on the covers so the wicket was not affected. The road won the toss and elected to bowl, a rather strange decision but from a young captain perhaps understandable.
The usual suspects of McNair and Sykes opened and from the outset Grampound showed really undisciplined bowling as sanchez looked like a baby bird learning how to fly his arms were going up and down so often signalling wide! The Road eventually bowled 26 extra wide deliveries giving away 63 runs in the process, one wide down leg even going to fine legs left !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
McNair gave his wicket away early, a growing problem he needs to stop but Bennetts joined Sykes in a very large xxx partnership. Sykes was going well, although without the absolute chancelessness of the previous day. Perhaps the bowling had an effect as erratic bowling can affect things sometimes. With Bennetts departing for 42 Starkie joined the fun and after a slow start really started to fly. A glorious cover drive for 6 being a joy to behold. Syksie must have been worried about losing out on another ton as he ran Starkie out backing up (unacceptable) or as he hit the ball about 300 mph perhaps he was trying to kill Mitchell (thats fine). Either way James was out just as he was really looking to go huge. Sykes followed soon after for an excellent 119 but after that there was not much to shout about. Sanchez hit two big 6's but a third try had him caught at long on. Mitchell meanwhile managed to throw the bat much further than he has managed to hit a ball with it so far this season, Lutton went big then out before Mark and Knight ensured we finished our overs and were not bowled out within the allotment. 313 for 9 was mammoth and it was just as well as what followed was really disappointing.
McNair opened with Lutton and Sanchez and things early on looked reasonable, Lutz bowled well and dave picked up two wickets including another catch by Mitchell, things must be looking up. Jonathen Bustin, a road 1st team regular and Mathew South however threatened to change things. Fully replaced Lutton downhill and unusually had an off day, mostly because the two road batsmen are 6'5 ish and their extra reach enabled them to launch balls normally of a good length. At the other end Mark Bennetts bowled magnificently, 2 for 24 off twelve including the two dangermen. Ably assisted by an excellent legside stumping by McNair and a fine catch at long off by Knight Grampound were put on the backfoot by the quick double strike. Ian Berridge however proved highly unorthodox and highly effective as he made 69*. With Mark and Full bowled out Sanchez and Mitchell were given the responsibility to close things out but were far too wayward and far too short, McNair being forced to remove Mitchell after only three overs for the second time this weekend and turning to Lutton to give him the offstump line and length he wanted. Lutz responded with 2 for f/a to finally close the door on grampound who finished 269 for 9. Thank god for their bowling giving us 74 extras.
So a good 19 points to go with saturdays 19, but with the bowling misfiring for the first time this season not quite the really season inspiring performance it could have been. I am sure however we can really gain confidence now for the rest of the season and make the second half belong to us.
Fowey 313-9 (W Sykes 119, A Bennetts 42, J Starkie 36, A Rust 3-44), Grampound Road II 269-8 (M South 56, J Bustin 42, D Sanchez 3-91, M Bennetts 2-24, I Lutton 2-44)
Fowey beat Grampound Road II by 44 runs.
Saturday 27th June
Fowey v Werrington II (home)
A glorious day saw Fowey entertain Werrington who are having their second consecutive hard season but who can still beat anyone on their day.
Winning the toss Werrington chose to bat and opened with Bailey, fresh off a 141 v Bugle and Dingle. Two very experienced (read old) campaigners who can still do big business. McNair opened with Sloman down hill and Mitchell up. Slowers bowled beautifully, clearly back in the groove after two years out. Anychance off Slowers singing ' Slowers got his groove back' on a Kareoke night. Mitch just as clearly was struggling and had to be removed after three overs as Bailey really stuck into him. Mark Bennetts replaced him and made up for a dolly at gully (only two feet above him) to remove Bailey in his first over caught by Sanchez at mid off. With Slowers quickly follwing up to remove Dingle caught by Sanchez again, this time in the gulley the big dangermen were gone and Fowey quickly regained control of the runrate. Slowman bowled 12 straight finishing 1 for 35 and only one bad ball in his entire spell, superb bowling. Mark was repaced after 7 overs, 1 for 20. Fully bowled down hill and quickly settled into a really tight line and length with plenty of help from the wicket and finished 4 for 28 another superb spell. Sanchez bowled 6 up hill and is now back on his full run up and hopefully soon will be back to his best. Watsie finished from the bottom picking up a 1 fer as Werrington finished 193 for 9.
The only random element was Starkie and Mitchell being village and falling out over, well nothing really and then the Werrington umpire getting involved for no good reason.
A lovely tea proceeded McNair and Sykes fashioning a 63 run partnership before McNair was triggered LBW on the back foot in front of middle and off. Bugle are you reading this?. Andrew joined Sykes and was a composed as ever but Sykes was looking the best so far this season, some of the shots really 'cracking' off the bat like bullets. Andrew fell for 37 and Starkie survived being bowled off a no ball, (claiming he heard the call in the bar later. bs someone says, me) to deny Sykes a ton as he finished 92*.
An efficient, clinical win, 19 points only really marred by a few sillies fielding. Oh and Mitchell held one HAPPY DAYS.
Werrington II 193-9 (O Bailey 40, A Jenkin 24, D Gregory 21, D Full 4-28), Fowey 194-2 (W Sykes 92*, A Bennetts 37, S McNair 29)
Fowey beat Werrington II by 8wkts
Saturday 20th June
Fowey v Looe (home)
Fowey entertained Looe with a strong team, only missing Sloman from our first 11. Winning the toss McNair chose to bowl and opened with Crapp down the hill and Mitchell up. Mitchell made his presence felt immediately with a wicket in his first over and quickly followed up with a real beaut swinging the ball through the gate to clip the top of off stump to dismiss the number 3. The strong gusty wind howver was clearly causing him problems with his run up and Olly never seemed to really find a rythem. After 6 overs McNair introduced Mark Bennetts up the hill. Meanwhile down the hill it became real Crapp as Tom suddenly picked up 3 quick wickets, a well deserved reward for a good attacking line and length. McNair allowed the Crapp coming down the hill to bowl a long spell before changing to the spin of Full who quickly settled into his usual line and length and spin. The wicket really played up for Darren being really two paced and with variable bounce. Seeing this McNair removed Mark Bennetts from the attack and introduced Watts from the bottom end to complement Full and Wattsie found huge, fast turn and bounce causing huge problems on both sides of the stumps. The Looe lower order youngsters showed much better technique than their senior partners and the father and son combo of Lister led to the largest Looe partnership before Watts broke the pair with a caugth and bowled off a skier. Father quickly follwed well caught by Sanchez at long on and the innings ended for 129 in 38 overs. The wickets shared around as they all bowled well, Tom picking up 3.
After a lovely tea McNair and Sykes opened and McNair fell quickly for 12 but Sykes and Andrew Bennetts showed their class both reaching excellent 50s to steer Fowey to a 9 wicket win in 24 overs with shots all around the wicket including a top straight six over the screen by Andrew, extending his lead over Sanchez.
A top effort, 20 points and roll on next week !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Looe 129 (M Lister 48, T Crapp 3-27, L Watts 2-21, D Full 2-26, O Mitchell 2-28), Fowey 133-1 (W Sykes 60*, A Bennetts 52*)
Fowey beat Looe by 9wkts
Saturday 13th June
Fowey v Bugle (away)
Bugle away would have been considered a should win game but unfortunately things just went wrong early and we never recovered.
Losing the toss we had the bizarre episode of the opposition captain not knowing waht to do on his own ground and having to go for a conference. Finally decided to bowl, which was what Fowey would have done as well. McNair and Sykes opened as usual, McNair being the more aggressive whilst Sykes was building his innings. Both the opening Bugle bowlers were seen off without many real problems but the first ball of the new ginger nut was a half tracker which Sykes found square leg on the boundary perfectly with. Bennetts joined McNair and things continued reasonably well but both the change bowlers were asking questions finding movement in the air and off the seam not in evidence with the openers. McNair especially got a jaffer which luckily flew though the vacant 2/3 slip area for four, he was not so lucky however when another rank half tracker was really hammered off the middle only to be caught low to the right and inches off the ground at backward square for 48. Starkie joined Bennetts but no real partnership started before rain came to interupt the innings. 92 for 2 off 22 overs at the rain interval did not give any inkling off the collapse to follow. Losing 4 overs pers side slow progress was made initially after the break but when Bennetts fell very well caught at slip things started to go wrong. Sanchez hit a breezy 15 but wickets started to be given away at regular intervals, the worst being Tom Crapp running himself out despite being repeatedly sent back (possibly the most stupid piece of cricket ever seen on a pitch) even more so when you consider his captain had told him to make sure he was there at the end only 2 balls previously. Only Mark Bennetts can have no complaint gloving a brutal lifter which gave him little chance. 129 all out was not good enough and was going to present real problems defending.
Deciding the only option was to be really aggressive and attack McNair opened with Darren Full who quickly found big spin, although it was another of his patented 'big spinning full tosses' which gave us the 1st wicket, excellently held by Woods at mid off. The same pair also accounted for the second wicket with Woodsy pulling off a superb catch running to his right at mid on, Mark Bennetts was bowling up hill accounted for Spencer triangled and should have had the number 4 bat all the way back in front of middle and off but a controversial decision denied Mark the wicket. Heads started to explode at this stage as the aggression required to win unsurprisingly boiled over at this. Bringing on Mitchell the dangerous Andrew Thomas was excellently caught by Starkie sweeping the boundary at cover off a mitchell wide full toss, which had Mitchell running up the track screaming 'I knew that would work, I knew that would work'. Yeah right !!!!!!!. Bugle were 60 for 6 and in real trouble but Full was out of overs and the ball was no longer moving. Tom Crapp replaced Full down the hill and settled into a good line just outside off whilst Sloman replaced Mitchell. It was cat and mouse as wickets fell regularly but the occassional 6 to 10 run over kept Bugle in the hunt. At 120 for 9 our last chance came and went when Mitchell ran around at deep mid on but failed to cling onto a difficult chance in front of the pavillion. Perhaps an inability to bowl at the stumps of number 11, you miss we hit style bowling is what we need to learn from this but that is being very critical of an excellent bowling and fielding effort. Hindsight allows many luxuries but at the end of the day 92 for 2 to 129 all out with our line up and all the front 5 getting starts was simply not good enough.
Bugle beat Fowey by 1 wkt
Saturday 6th June
Fowey v St Blazey (away)
After looking forward to this game all week and anticipating a 350 track at the blaise our good old cornish weather decided to rain saturday morning. AAARRRRGGGHHHHH
Anyway, picking a team with batting all the way down McNair called correct and immediately inserted St Blazey and threw the new ball to Olly Mitchell and Mark Sloman. Starting with a slightly defensive field McNair quickly moved to attack when Mitchell immediately found life in the pitch and bowling with real discipline enabled McNair to post two slips, gulley and a short leg. Mitchell quickly picked up the wicket of Sparrow well caught at second slip by Sykes and had a very good appeal for caught behind on Nick Carter turned down. Keeping up the pressure Mitchell then got the very inform James Carter LBW. Apparantly Mitchell, right arm seam and long run up looks very similar to Darren 'beefy' Full, left arm spin and short run up!!
At the other end Sloman bowled well but without luck. Not thinking the pitch was ready for spin yet McNair turned to the ever smiling spaniard David Sanchez and the other ever smiling 'Bambino' Tom Crapp. Crappy is coming back from a shoulder injury and started tentatively before picking up the wicket of Hamilton very well caught by Full moving low to his right at slip. After four overs McNair switched to Watts to bowl off spin whilst Sanchez kept things tight at the other end before being replaced by Full who immediately found big spin out of the footmarks, although it was a 'big spinning' full toss which accounted for Nick Carter caught at mid wicket by Starkie. Kirwan and Jackson built a partnership and Jackson in particular was beginning to look dangerous before being superbly caught low around his ankles by Starkie off the bowling of Watts. The second catch in two weeks of this type by Starkie. The rest of the Balise batting fell at regular intervals with only Kirwan scoring regularly before being last man out for a well played 48.
Fowey were set a target of 206 and the Carter brothers opening spell caused real problems for both Sykes and McNair testing their technique and patience, Sykes fell for 8 off Nick Carter but McNair was starting to show the form of last year as built his innings beginning to find the boundary regularly. Andrew Bennetts also took time to pay himself in but showed he was also looking to return to his best form with his trademark edge through the slips for four early on always being a good sign of big runs to come. A solid 81 partnership came to an end when a lapse of concentration saw McNair bowled for 53, runs McNair has been owing to the team. James Starkie joined Bennetts and was looking really goos until superbly caught and bowled by Kirwan but this brought the ever smiling spaniard Sanchez to the crease and a start of 6-1-6-1 was ideal. (We seem to have a real tussle between Pebba and Sanchez for the 6 cup). Sanchez fell for 23 and this brought Sloman in and he is turning out to be a real 'finisher' for us as he and Bennetts saw us home with 6 overs to spare, Bennetts finishing 81 not out and Sloman 30 not out.
A really good performance, 20 points and an ideal result.
Special mention must be made of Robert Bennetts who was picked to give me extra depth to the batting line up and unfortunately got no game for himself. He took one for the team and club, thank you very much Rob I owe you one.
St Blazey 205 (D Kirwan 48, N Carter 42, D Full 2-18, O Mitchell 2-32) Fowey 206-4 (A Bennetts 81*, S McNair 53, M Sloman 30*, D Sanchez 23)
Fowey beat St Blazey by 6wkts
Saturday 30th May
Fowey v Roche (home)
On a baking hot day, table topping Roche visited the Windmill arena. In form Mark Sloman and Mike Burnett were badly missed as well as Luke Watts but a fairly strong Fowey side took to the field and opted to make first use of the track. But against some very decent swing bowling from the off, Will Sykes misplaced his cover drive and was caught at point early on. McNair soon followed his fellow opener back to the pavilion and with Roche well and truly on top they began to take complete control of the game. More wickets fell with Andrew Bennetts, Rich Crapp and Ollie Mitchell falling cheaply and although James Starkie looked like starting a revival he then departed for 12, adjudged LBW. Mark Bennetts dug in but one man decided to take on Roche alone, enter the smiling Spaniard Dave Sanchez who turned the match on its head with a wonderful display of controlled hitting. It was a memorable knock highlighted by 5 maximums, but when Bennetts and then Tom Crapp lost out it still looked a poor total on a good track. However, Darren Full showed why he was once seen as an all-rounder playing almost as well as Sanchez! The pair put on a brilliant last wicket stand with Fully playing some elegant strokes, the pick of the bunch being an effortless flick for 6. 195 was the score to defend and knowing Roche possessed a strong batting line up Fowey had to bowl and field out of their skins.
In a surprise move, McNair opened with the raw Iran Lutton and Mark Bennetts and it looked a decent card to play as Lutton bowled very well and was very unlucky to see edges fly away for boundaries rather than being caught. Fowey had the early breakthrough that was so required and it was all down to a superb diving catch in the covers by Starkie off the tight bowling of Bennetts. After that the Roche top order dug in and chipped away at the target, Ollie Mitchell replaced Bennetts and gave the home side another boost with the wicket of Trudgeon. The game was in the balance and all-rounder Full started to tip it in Foweys favour with 12 of the most solid overs you will ever see. But although the run rate was creeping up to 7 an over Roche still had wickets in the bag and experienced campaigners Neil Trudgeon and Clive Libby at the crease. Not content in batting brilliantly Sanchez also put in an excellent bowling stint, and when he accounted for Trudgeon it looked very much on for an amazing victory. But the match saw another twist when Ben Libby chanced his luck and got away with it, hitting a rapid 27. The game did go to the last over but Libby managed to backheel the winning runs.
Very good game full of twists and turns and some excellent performances, but very unlucky to lose in the end.
Fowey 195 (D Sanchez 78*, D Full 30), Roche 199-7 (C Libby 40*, O Mitchell 3-65, D Sanchez 2-55)
Roche beat Fowey by 3 wkts in the last over.
Monday 25th May
Fowey v St Austell II (home)
20 more points was a great result in a rather odd game highlighted by an excellent allround game by Will Sykes.
McNair won the toss again and inserted town fearing late rain might come and interfere with a result. Opening with Burnett and Sloman a tight opening spell created few chances but generally did not allow St austell's batsmen to gain any real momentum. Stiffness and second game syndrome were in evidence very quickly and both teams seemed to be off their usual level of intensity for the the local derby. The first wicket fell to Burnett getting Trudgeon LBW before McNair changed the bowling bringing on Mitchell and Bennetts. Mitchell pounded up the hill creating plenty of swing and cut to dismiss Richards well caught by Watts in the gully. Mark had a short spell finding it difficult to create any movement with the win behind him so McNair quickly turned to spinner Full who immediatley settled into an accurate line and length with an excellent 10 over spell of 2 for 27 which should have been 3 for but McNair missed an easy stumping chance but made up for it quickly stumping Dingle off the bowling of Sloman, the miss only costing four runs. Mitchell meanwhile was creating plenty of chances but they kept getting dropped and 1 for 42 does not do justice to an excellent effort. A slight balls up with mitchell unable to count to 12 left Bennetts to have 1 over at the end but two wickets were ideal as Fowey got the full bowling points in the last over. The real highlight of the fielding was Sykes with three excellent catches and three of our youngest and fittest players all having poorly shoulders. A total of 174 was not likely to cause a problem if Fowey applied themselves but McNair set an awful example giving his wicket away in the second over. Fortunately Will "all the shots" Sykes and Andrew " I've got plenty too" Bennetts set about the town attack going at 8+ an over, ex fowey player Long John Brain going for 6 an over and being the pick!! Bennetts was out for 33 and Burnett opened the door for StAustell following quickly for 2 but Sykes quickly slammed it shut again powering to an unbeaten 81 with Sloman finishing 23 not out as Fowey passed 175 in only 25 overs.
A good 20 points in a muted performance with Sykes clearly being the outstanding player. McNair bought a jug for his gross batting shot (can you call it batting ?) and over all an excellent weekend with maximum points.
St Austell 175 (J Bragg 45, L Dingle 39, M Bennetts 2-15, D Full 2-27, M Sloman 2-35, M Burnett 2-46), Fowey 176-3 (W Sykes 81*, A Bennetts 33, M Sloman 23*)
Fowey (20 pts) beat St Austell II by 7wkts
Saturday 23rd May
Fowey v Truro II (away)
20 points, enough said...
Apparantly smudge reckons thats not enough so I guess I'll have to do better.
McNair broke his tossing (tossers?) duck to win one and promptly decided to bat on a hot Truro wicket he expected to get lower as the game went on. It didn't. Opening with Sykes Fowey got off to a solid start with good running and a few flashing shots square of the wicket and the openers took advantage. McNair got a grubber to end his innings too early but Andrew Bennetts and Sykes continued to maintain the pressure on Truro and lay the foundations for a good score. Bennetts also departed unluckily and too early but Mike Burnett joined Sykes to continue progress. Sykes meanwhile was continuing to score well, amazing as he only seems to have one shot but he plays it WELL. Unfortunately on 86 Sykes walked caught behind.
Mark Bennetts in next started brightly but Truro were by now clawing their way back into the game by taking the pace off the ball and the run rate started to drop to 2 an over for a 10 over period. Mark Sloman meanwhile was in and probably had 50, but no one, especially the scorers seem to know. Our long tail of all rounders kept the rate up at the end with some lovely (del boy lovely accent please) hitting, a few highlights being Slomans square cut for six with three fielders on the square offside boundary. (truro's captancy and field placing were random all game) and Wattsies rather big six over wide cow, over the road, over the hedge, you get the idea. 250 at end was pretty much the target in mind at start of innings, perhaps 30 light at 30 overs with 280 in mind at that stage but still formidable.
McNair opened the bowling with Burnett, left arm over in swing and Tom "zero committment, total excuses" Crapp and after a few overs settling in Burnett knocked over the top three of Truro. A good catch by Andrew "I'm in the air ouch it hurts when I land" Bennetts and a rather good legside stumping by McNair. Tom meanwhile backed up Burnett with a disciplined outside off stump line and an 8-1 offside field, creating one spilled chance. Unfortunately one chance off Burnett was also spilled when Mark Adams was on 10, and he went on to make a ton!!!.
Looking to turn the screw McNair turned to his spin twins of Watts and Full but surprisingly neither were able to get much purchase off the track. Watts took no wickets and hurt his arm throwing whilst Full only took one with a full toss that had 6 written in big bright neon lights all over it. Perhaps in hindsight the bowling was changed a few overs too late but McNair turned to Mark Bennetts and Sloman to bring us home and again the first few overs of both were pants, but they got into their groove and wickets started to fall with Bennetts making the crucial breakthrough breaking Truro's 100 partnership pair. This opened up one end for us to keep taking wickets but Adams was continuing to win the game for Truro at the other as the game was never decided until the 45th over when Bennetts again got the crucial breakthrough with Watts taking a good catch coming in from long off to take a miss time drive as Adams was finally out for 101. That was pretty much it, Bennetts again took the last wicket in the final over too give us 20 points and a good win in a hard fought game. Perhaps we made it hard on ourselves but you cannot argue with 20 points.
Fowey 250-9 (W Sykes 86, M Sloman 49*, A Bennetts 24,M Burnett 23, C Purchase 4-83), Truro 239 (M Adams 101, R Thomas 46, M Burnett 3-29, M Bennetts 3-52, M Sloman 3-56)
Fowey beat Truro by 11 runs
Saturday 9th May
Fowey v Liskeard (away)
Fowey 196-7 (A Bennetts 52, W Sykes 37, S McNair 34, L Watts 33*, A Cobb 2-31), Liskeard 200-4(J Maunder 91*, O Mitchell 3-44)
Liskeard beat Fowey by 6 wkts
Saturday 2nd May
Fowey v Lanhydrock (home)
After the disappointing start at Menheniot, the team were keen to put the result behind them and start again with the first home game of the campaign. However rain was prominent throughout the week and although the grounds staff showed great dedication in getting some kind of pitch ready it was still a very wet ground and playing flowing cricket was never going to be easy. Again the toss would play its part and this time McNair was successful and made the decision to put the visitors in.
Opening up, Justin Wood and Chris Stephenson did a very good job and restricted the openers to scraps to feed on and with the pressure building Stephenson picked up the crucial 1st wicket when Butler miscued a drive straight into Starkie's mitts at short cover. From that the home side grew in confidence and really began to pin down the batsmen and they struggled to get the scoreboard moving all game. After Wood and Stephenson completed excellent opening spells Mark Bennetts took over and managed to pick up a brace but after that getting the rest of the Drock wickets proved a tough task with Tom Harris showing great resilience. Looking for another breakthrough, McNair turned to the evergreen campaigner Andrew Bennetts who showed some of the old magic picking up a wicket in a 3 over blast. Luke Watts did further late damage picking up an excellent 3 fer and Mark Bennetts picked up 1 more however credit to Lanhydrock who batted through to the end with 2 wickets intact for a total of 92.
Skipper McNair looked edgy early on as he did his best to avoid another zero but once he got going with good support from James Starkie the opening pair provided the platform for the victory. Looking to up the tempo against some very good bowling from Cavendish and Yates, Starkie eventually went for a well made 20 which included the teams first 6 of the season but McNair carried on the good start reaching his 50. However McNair did not manage to see the run chase through, and departed for 54 when he was well caught off the bowling of Jake Butler. Eventually Andrew Bennetts picked up the remaining runs to see Fowey home to a very welcome first win of the season.
Lanhydrock 92 (T Harris 36, M Bennetts 3-21, L Watts 3-25), Fowey 93-2 (S McNair 54, J Starkie 20)
Fowey (19pts) beat Lanhydrock by 8 wkts
Saturday 25th April
Fowey v Menheniot (away)
The 1sts travelled to Menheniot severly depleted and went more in hope than expectation. The toss would play a crucial role on a day of heavy showers and it was no surprise that having won the toss Menheniot inserted the visitors.
Opening up in gale force winds in sub zero temperatures Fowey were immediately on the back foot when skipper McNair gloved a lifter to depart for a 4 ball duck. A couple of nice boundaries was all fellow opener Mark Bennetts could muster before watching the slip fielder juggle and hold onto a sharp catch. Andrew Bennetts did his best to stem the tide and Fowey were more than grateful when the heavens opened. However it didn't rain long enough to abandon the game and the game recommenced after a painful wait in the dressing room with the match reduced to just 33 overs. Bennetts rallied with a decent effort of 22 but wickets kept tumbling at the other end, only a late cameo from Tom Jones h