Saturday, May 15

Bond Timber Cornwall Cricket League (Division Two East)

Bude (219 all out)

Tintagel (135-9)

SKIPPER Warren Rumble maintained his incredible start to the season as Bude beat Tintagel by 84 runs at Crooklets.

After being sent in by opposite number Ryan Pooley, Rumble (89) and fellow opener Matt Hookway added a second successive 50-plus stand before Tintagel’s spinners helped restrict Bude to 219 all out. Sam Hockin and Shaun Whitefield ripped through the Tintagel batting line-up before Matt Richie’s 35 helped Tintagel claw their way to 135-9 when time ran out.

Tintagel made the short trip up the A39 looking to continue their decent start since promotion, while Bude were after a third successive victory following last week’s postponement at Callington seconds. Rumble had scored 69, 104 not out and 84 in his three previous trips to the crease this term and he was in the runs once more, although he had to see off a probing new-ball spell from Jordan Blanchard on an unusually slow pitch.

However Rumble and Hookway did eventually get away and it wasn’t until Pooley bowled Hookway for 35 that the game opened up for the visitors. Left-arm spinner Matt Pethick (2-14) dismissed Charlie Gliddon for 0 before Wayne Adams departed for a single to the same bowler.

Tom Hall was run out for 11 and Hockin (10) was bowled by slow bowler Simon Fry (2-35) looking for a maximum. Matt Williams made 17 from number seven before he was caught off Jonathan Labuschagne, and then Dry then grabbed his second when he had Matt Mansbridge plumb lbw for one.

Rumble continued to hit boundaries in his 89 which saw six fours and five sixes, but when he was caught behind off the returning Blanchard, Bude were still short of 200. However, Shaun Whitefield (17no) and James Findlay (9) got the score up to 219 before Blanchard (3-45) returned to dismiss Findlay and last man Jack Horwell. Inside ten overs of the chase, the game was all but over as Hockin and Whitefield tore into them.

Whitefield trapped Andy Boxall leg before wicket for a single as well as having Jordan Burnard caught in the gully and star man Pooley snaffled at mid-on. On the other hand, Hockin had the returning Geoff Uglow caught behind for three, although he went past the edge on numerous occasions.

Labuschagne and Matt Richie got stuck in, with the former looking to hit the ball through the covers at every opportunity, while Richie’s 35 contained several boundaries straight down the ground. The partnership was broken when Whitefield pulled off a superb stop off his own bowling to run out Labuschagne.

From there on, Bude applied the breaks, with Williams’ off-spin claiming 2-28, while Findlay went for just 27 off his 12 overs.

Tintagel ended on 135-9, with Bude left frustrated not to take all 20 points. Rumble was pretty pleased with his side’s efforts, saying: “Batting wise there needs to be some improvements going forward, but I was over the moon with the way we bowled and fielded. That set the tone for us to win the game.

“At tea I was quietly confident because of Ryan’s call at the toss which led me to think they might be stronger in bowling than batting. Then once Sam and Shaun got into their work, they broke the back of the game for us.

“Shaun bowled 11 in a row, and this year he’s got his lengths absolutely spot on. Before he might bowl the odd four ball, but at the moment he’s got everything under control. And with Sam, you can tell the class he’s got, and once he gets his sharpness back in the coming weeks, he’ll run through some teams.”

Bude are on the road at Menheniot-Looe this Saturday.

Rumble added: “We’ve got exactly the same 11 as last week, and although we’re expecting a big test, we’ll be going in confident. It’s always been a close game between the two sides, but the fact they’ve not played for the last two weeks, plus we won our last away game at St Blazey, means we should go into it sharper than them and with confidence.”

Tintagel skipper Ryan Pooley admitted it was ‘one of those days’ with the bat.

He said: “As a team we put in a solid fielding performance and bowled well as a unit. We never really let them get away from us as we took wickets at regular intervals. They have a very good batting line-up, so I was delighted with how we stuck at it.

“Jordan Blanchard was impressive again with another three wickets to back up his five against Roche, which included Warren caught behind, and Matt Pethick and Simon Fry both picked up important wickets through the middle to stop them getting away from us.

“Batting wise we came up against a very good new-ball pair which meant we couldn’t really get going, while a couple of soft dismissals didn’t help matters.

“At tea, I thought they were about par and I had a decent top seven. We couldn’t rotate the strike early on, and if we did it may have been different, as they didn’t have too much after that. We just needed two or three of them to go big, but we didn’t, it was just one of those days.”

Leaders Wadebridge seconds are the visitors this Saturday to the North Cornwall coast, and Pooley believes his side has nothing to lose. He said: “It’ll be another big test, which is as tough a game as this week, if not tougher.

“They’re a very good all-round side but you never know, at home we might cause another shock. Ultimately a win would be great, but if we can pick up as many points as possible it always helps come September. Hopefully Frank Page will come back in to bolster our bowling attack but hopefully I can pick a similar side.”