DCL 1st XI Premier Division

Cornwood 171 for 5,

Bovey Tracey 281 for 6.

Cornwood (5 points) lost to Bovey Tracey (17 points) by 110 runs

After a convincing victory in their first match against Budleigh Salterton on the opening weekend of the season, last Saturday's home encounter against Bovey Tracey made Cornwood realise the standard of Premier Division cricket is going to be very testing at times.

Although Bovey ran out convincing winners by 110 runs, the Cornwood team competed well at all levels.

Winning the toss, Corns skipper Craig Harris decided to put Bovey into bat and, despite having a strong batting line-up which included no less than six regular county players, initially Cornwood had them wobbling at 64-3.

However, their experience eventually shone through with former Devon skipper Neil Hancock and overseas player Damian Bourke sharing a match-winning partnership of 145 runs for the fourth wicket.

Bovey eventually finished on 281- 6.

The main Cornwood wicket takers were Matt Butterworth with 3-53 and Adam Goodliffe 2-65. 

Having lost one of their principal batsmen, Jason Hall, due to a finger injury while fielding, skipper Harris felt that aggressively chasing that kind of total against a strong bowling line-up was too tough a challenge.

Instead, he opted for a cautious approach which frustrated the Bovey attack, but prevented them from taking any more than five Cornwood wickets and limited the Bovey win total to 17 points.

Cornwood finished on 171-5 in return and as a result they only picked up five points in the game, but Harris was positive in defeat, stating that these points may prove crucial come the end of the season.

It is fair to say that Cornwood's principal objective this season is to retain its place in the Premier division.

Harris was encouraged by the batting performance of new overseas player Asif Raza, who batted fluently for his 83 not out, which enabled the other early order Cornwood players to bat solidly around him.

Asif has already fitted into the team really well and in his first two matches has managed to score 126 runs without losing his wicket.

Cornwood were left feeling disappointed to fall so far short of the target, but drew some positives going into another challenging fixture this Saturday against the current Deon Premier champions Sidmouth, at Fortfield. 

Cornwood will probably be without Jason Hall, who is likely to need more time to recover from his finger ligament damage.

 Cornwood second XI also slipped up against Bovey second XI in the reverse fixture.

Despite restricting their opponents to a fairly low 153-8, with Matt Skeemer returning the best bowling figures of 3-27, the Cornwood batting line-up stuttered from the start, with only Cait O'Keefe achieving a score above 20. Cornwood finished on 97 all out, some 56 runs behind Bovey. 

The 3rd XI also lost at home to Ottery St Mary 2nd XI, but there was better news for the 4th XI, who ran out winners against Plymstock 3rd XI by six wickets, with Nick Goodliffe (56) and colt Aaron Richards (44) sharing a century partnership for the second wicket. 

Cornwood Ladies 2nd XI recorded a victory in their first league match, winning away at Exmouth by 41 runs, with Becky Piddock the star of the show, scoring 70 not out and then taking three Exmouth wickets for just four runs conceded.

A great team effort in the field kept the Exmouth batting well under control.

Cornwood now have two ladies' teams entered in the Devon Ladies League and this result will add pressure on the selection committee for places in the 1st XI, when they take on Torquay this Sunday.