Today's date is

Thursday 31st May

Home v Erratics

Tuesday 29th May

Away v Newton St Cyrs EEL

Sunday 27th May

Home v Cullompton NDL

Another day more like February than May! Very little cricket was possible in any of todays NDL matches.

Saturday 26th May

Home v Ilfracombe NDL Cup

Ilfracombe called off as they couldn't raise a team.

Wednesday 23rd May

Home v Ide

Tuesday 22nd May

Home v Thorverton EEL

What a beautiful evening to play cricket, sunny and warm and Ted lost the toss again, but the young Thorverton team elected to field first.
Richard started the innings briskly, reaching 25, when he played a casual shot to Rhodes and lost his off stump. We soon lost both Captain and Vice and were in some trouble. Fortunately Charles and Jeremy were able to see off Meridith and Rhodes while getting their eye in, they then took full advantage of the Thorverton change bowlers, running well and some magnificent hitting from Jeremy, a good total was achieved. Jeremy fell at 171 and Mike had just 3 balls to play, hitting the first for 4 and the final 2 were unplayable.
Charles played a very sensible innings, which held the Cheriton batting together, something we missed last week.

Scoring 176 against the Cheriton attack, was always going to be a tall order for the Thorverton young batsmen and so it proved. Ben and Richard bowled good lines, with Ben picking up 2 early wickets, Ted bowled one straight and got another. The required run rate was climbing and Anthony came on at the Cadleigh end, bowling a brilliant spell of 4 overs 4 for 19, with Will mopping up the tail.

A good first win in this league, lets get another at Newton St Cyres next Tuesday.

Please note that Exeter St James have pulled out of the League and Congratulations to Ben on your engagement over the weekend, hope you can now concentrate on your batting! MF

Sunday 20th May

Home v Blagdon Hill

After much discussion with the Senior Pros on whether to bat or bowl first (one of whom declined to give his opinion on the grounds that the captain would automatically take the opposite view), Charles won the toss and decided we should take the field, whilst realizing he'd have to strap the keeper's pads on.Will and Phil opened proceedings and bowled well, keeping the scoring below 4 an over. Phil was toiling up the hill and was replaced by Carl who also kept it tight. Meanwhile at the new pavilion end, Will tempted the opener into skying the ball to long on and Jamie Forrest, in his
debut for the club, took a very good catch, although the bowler had to be prompted into thanking the fielder. With Will having bowled out his 8 overs and with Carl unable to take a wicket at the other end, Charles took the decision to go for the mysteries of the slower bowlers, and there's no bigger mystery than Robbie when it comes to bowling! Andy took the ball down the hill and then some stick from the number 3 batsman who was intent in hitting the ball at the spectators, however a drink and a word in the ear from the captain gave Andy his first wicket when the batsman tried to hit a leg side delivery which hit his pad and
then the bottom of off stump. His second was slightly more orthodox as the ball was held at extra cover by Will when the batsman hit it up in the air. There then followed a number of missed stumpings where Andy beat the bat three times only for Charles not to take the ball three times! Robbie picked up a wicket in his eight overs up the hill, but gave way to Phil to complete his complement, and Andy gave way to Jim Janes to turn his arm over for the first time this season. This paring did a good job of mopping up the tail, and the innings would have been rapped up inside the 40 overs if Charles had taken the two stumpings of Jim's bowling, but nobody was expecting that to happen now. As it was some good straight bowling did the trick as four of the five wickets were bowled or LBW. This restricted the visitors to 198 for 9, just under 5 an over to win.

At the end of the tea interval, Charles was still trying to weigh down the opposition with the excellent sandwiches and cakes that were provided. Unfortunately the food also weighed down the batsmen as Peter was run out early on. Mike gave three chances in his innings, all off full tosses. The first was taken by deep mid wicket but the fieldsman ran over the boundary rope and gifted Mike six runs. The second was dropped but the third was hit back to the bowler who clung on. Jamie was the only other batsman in the runs as he made 31 in good time, but the low bounce saw off Carl, Phil and Robbie with Phil the most unlucky when
the ball squeezed under his bat on the second bounce. Andy was the last man out when the score was on 153, but a very good game played in good spirit. We hope to make this a regular fixture. AH

Mike in full swing.....	....and again.	Jamie Forrest doing an impersonation of Colin!
Greg defending stoutly.	Jim looking the biz!	Andy does his 'K' pose.

Friday 18th May

Home v Beer Engine

After all the rain over the past 10 days, this match was never likely to be a run feast.
Beer Engine elected to bat, Steve Jones was confident in his players who had been practising for many weeks, obviously for this game, but not on this pitch! They all tried to pull short balls to mid wicket and ran between the wickets like James and Colin playing indoors, but Cheriton bowled straight and they didn't bargain on the Guscott. I think Nick was the perpetuator of all three run outs and good bowling from Will, Colin, Eric,Robbie, Nick and especially Greg whose 3 overs produced 2 wickets for 9 runs.

Cheriton then had the daunting task of scoring 58 off 20 overs, but there was a short boundary to help!
After 8 overs we were 9 for 4, with Greg and Mike digging in after losing Ben (unlucky to be run out),Will, Anthony and Jack. The scoring rate increased; 16 off 11; then 26 off 14; only 32 needed off 6. Then with Nick coming to the crease we scored the 32 off of 2! Funny game Cricket.

Well captained Colin, Beer Engine back to the nets I think?

After match, was for a change back at Ring o' Bells, where Jim kindly provided us all with some much appreciated food, washed down with a few beers. Had to pay for the Beer though!

Many thanks Jim! MF

Tuesday 15th May

Away v Countess Wear EEL

Mike reporting from the score box, nursing his bad leg.

This was a match Cheriton should have won, though the Countess Wear team looked a good outfit.
Batting first Countess Wear were in trouble, apart from Will's loose first over going for 11, with Ben bowling a superb spell of 5 overs 3 for 17.
Fortunately Will was taken out the attack after bowling 2 slow beamers, but was replaced by a rusty Rohan, who went for 16 in his first. What was wrong with Keighter? Ted then replaced Ben and continued with some excellent bowling from the pavilion end, but the Countess Wear opener held firm throughout their innings to help them reach 126 in their 20 overs.
Cheriton started in fine stile, with Richard hitting the first ball over the sight screen and when Ben was with him the result looked a formality. Unfortunately we lost wickets early, when there was no need to take any risks, with Richard making sure we were well up to the run rate. The bowlers were keeping the ball up to the bat with no width and when Richard was out, the batting fell apart, if only one of the senior batsmen had still been there, as we only needed !8 runs from 5 overs! MF