The victorious Chudleigh team after their win over Kingskerswell.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 18
KINGSKERSWELL'S midweek adventure came to an anti-climatic end when as they crashed to a 92-run defeat at Chudleigh in the final of the Newton Twenty20.
Having beaten Bovey Tracey from five divisions higher twice in the qualifying rounds, Kerswell had nothing to fear against Premier side Chudleigh.
If anyone was anxious it was Chudleigh, struggling at the bottom of the Premier Division, and with good reason as they collapsed to 17 for five in the first five over.
Phil Lacey claimed three for 13 in the opening burst, Antony Waters had two for six in the same period and Chudleigh were in all sorts of trouble.
Not for the first time over the years Chudleigh were baled out by ‘Mr Dependable' Mark Solway, who repaired the situation in a stand of 92 for the sixth wicket with Ed Hunt.
Kerswell were convinced they had Solway stone dead lbw before he got off the mark – and he went on to make 57 with eight fours and a six.
Hunt was very much the junior partner in the stand – Solway overtook him from a standing start – but what mattered was the 47 he made an nothing else.
When the bits and pieces were added on – boosted by a slog at the end which saw Kerswell's Mark Kenyon go for 11, 16 and 18 in the last three overs – Chudleigh had a respectable 141 for eight on the board.
Chudleigh started solidly enough with Waters (15) and Paul Mitchell (12) posting 26 for the first wicket. With big-hitting West Indian Sergio Fedee to come, the underdogs were in with a chance.
Kerswell's problems started when Chudleigh skipper Matt Hookway brought Sri Lankan spinner Bhanu deSilva into the attack as the wickets tumbled like ninepins.
Fedee (19no) played deSilva okay, but the rest were bamboozled by his leg-breaks, arm balls and ones that went the other way.
On two occasions deSilva was on a hat-trick as he claimed six for six in four overs – and ran out Dan Machin while the bowling was from the other end – as Kerswell plummeted from 33 for two to 49 all out.
Solway won the man of the match award ahead of de Silva on the simple basis that without his efforts nothing the Sri Lankan could have done would have changed the game.
Chudleigh 141-8 (M Solway 57, E Hunt 42; P Lacey 3-13, A Waters 2-6), Kingskerswell 49 (S Fedee 19no; D deSilva 6-6). Chudleigh bt Kingskerswell by 92 runs.
