DEVON
are two wins away from a Lord's final after beating
Cornwall by 85 runs at St Just yesterday to book a place
in the last-eight of the Minor Counties Trophy.
David Lye top scored with
52 for Devon in a 50-over total of 229 for nine –
then Neil Hancock claimed four wickets in 17 balls to
put the skids under Cornwall.
Cornwall, who were well placed at 51 for two, subsided
to 63 for seven during a six-over spell from Hancock
and Sidmouth team-mate Scott Barlow.
The game was a meaningless contest after that and both
side knew it, although Cornwall stuck around as long
as they could in the hope of salvaging some pride from
a disappointing showing on their part.
Cornwall lasted until the 44 th over when Gavin Edwards
was last man out for 34 in a total of 144.
Devon are waiting for confirmation of their quarter-final
opponents, but expect to be travelling to Cheshire on
a date to be decided within the next three weeks. Win
that game and there is a real chance Devon will be on
their way to Lord's for the first time since losing
there to Norfolk in the 2001 final.
Devon had a patchy start to their innings with openers
Neil Bettis and Bob Dawson both out for 29 on the board.
Arul Suppiah looked in good
for more than the 22 he got –and would surely
have added to that tally had he not deployed the slog-sweep
to slow left-armer Alex Smeeth and missed.
David Court was already in when Suppiah got out and
went on to make 44 in stand of 55 with Lye that put
Devon in control.
Court was possibly unlucky not to reach 50 as he was
given out lbw to Anthony Angove despite taking a substantial
stride down the wicket.
Lye carried on until 177 for six when he dabbed at leg-side
ball delivery from Mark George and guided straight to
a fielder.
With Sandy Allen making 16, Trevor Anning 22 not out
and Ian Bishop a bright and breezy 23 off 19 balls,
which included two sixes swiped into the next field
off the bowling of Cornwall captain Tom Sharp, Devon
had a competitive total to defend.
The view in the Cornwall camp was the chase was 50 more
than it ought to have been, due largely to their failure
to bowl in the right areas. That proved a mis-estimate
by the end.
Devon got the sort of start they wanted by removing
ex-pros David Roberts and Mike Burns for the not-so-grand
total of six between them.
Roberts (ex-Northants) was lbw to Anning while Bishop
had former Somerset captain Burns caught behind.
Gary Thomas and Tom Sharp appeared to have Cornwall
back on course, but losing Sharp when Barlow bowled
him for 29 was the beginning of the end.
Hancock started wreaking havoc by pinging Chris Hunkin's
off-stump in the over after Thomas went. He followed
up with Alex Smeeth and Anthony Angove in successive
deliveries, then claimed Sharp trying to drive.
Edwards (34) made enough runs with the tail enders to
stave off total humiliation.
Devon 229-9 (D G Court 44, D F Lye 52, I E Bishop 23;
WM George 3-35), Cornwall 144 (G M Thomas 29, G D Edwards
34; N D Hancock 4-24, A V Suppiah 2-18). Devon bt Cornwall
by 85 runs.
