Devon D West

Whitchurch Wayfarers v Yelverton Bohemians

THE one thing apparently guaranteed to bring the rain clouds is the start of the cricket season.  So it proved at Whitchurch House on Saturday. Whitchurch met local rivals Yelverton Bohemians with the clouds leaking rain in a uniquely Devon manner.

The start was delayed and the first innings interrupted for a short while. Then the rain eased off and an intriguing and close game developed.

Whitchurch were put into bat and started with real promise. Ben Powell in his first game as captain swished his blade in cavalier fashion. Riding his luck but also seeing off the opening bowlers he made 42. His partner Josh Towl (78) was more circumspect. As he gained in confidence his batting became more assured and he hit some beautiful straight drives.

At the fall of Powell to Van Niekirk Richard Hall (33) joined Josh and the pair enjoyed a fruitful partnership of 91 leading Whitchurch to 165-1 and looking to set a challenging target.

Just at the point at which they tried to increase the pace the wheels came off the innings in most spectacular fashion. Hall was run out after a combination of misunderstanding and loss of footing. Almost immediately Towl’s innings came to a close when he nicked one to the keeper. 165-3 was still a very strong position.

Within a blink of an eye and a mere seven overs later the players were taking tea. Whitchurch collapsed to 185 all out with Daniel Farmer doing the damage. His figures of 6-12 illustrating the desperate nature of the collapse.

In reply Yelverton knew that steady batting would see them home. The experience of Cottrell (43) and Brain (26) set them off on the right path. Taking few risks they saw Yelverton to just short of 50 runs when Brain nicked the ball to keeper Powell.

With two wickets following shortly after including Van Niekirk for 14. He was clean bowled by Poole whose spell was one of the real positives to come from the game.

At this stage Yelverton stood at 61-3 and Whitchurch had brief hopes that another collapse was in the offing. It was not to be.

First Zubair (48) and then Vinson (33 not out) demonstrated that the target set was nowhere near enough. With an injury to one of the bowlers Whitchurch had to find six overs from somewhere.

Despite some gallant and athletic fielding Zubair and Vinson simply waited for the inevitable bad ball. Meadows (1 for 19) and Towl (2 for 30) started to apply a little pressure at the end but when Towl’s spell finished a no ball boundary six from the next over saw the game come to a rapid close.

Yelverton Bohemians won by four wickets.